A Chick is Born and Other News

Amount a month ago one of our hens went broody and started sitting full-time on a clutch of four eggs. Since we are having trouble with our rooster (he's a jerk to the hens and is damaging their backs) we thought this would be our chance to see how the chick raising process goes.  So we let her sit on the eggs.  The incubation period is about 21 days, thus we were curious what the hen would do with herself for food and water. At first she basically sat on the eggs without interruption for two weeks.  When we'd go collect eggs from the other hens we'd tap on her back to make sure she was still alive.  Sure enough she'd raise her feathers and squawk a bit.  After the first two weeks she did venture out of the coop to get some food and water on occasion, but after a few days she went back to sitting uninterrupted.

Pretty much right on time we looked in and saw this:

Little yellow face

A little chick had appeared! At this point we were not sure that the rooster or the other hens would be safe for the chick, so we closed up the hen and chick in the coop for a few days so the little thing could grow a bit. The other chickens roosted on top of the coop at night and the hens laid eggs around the property-not ideal but we didn't have another option.  We also waited to see if the other eggs would hatch.  They didn't in the end, which is probably pretty normal.

After a few days we had to move the hen and the chick out of the coop so the other chickens could return home.  At first we tried a cat carrier but that was too small.  Eventually we put the two of them in to a large feeding trough with food & water.  We had to keep the trough covered to keep the cats from being too interested.  (Ironically this is the same trough we use to take chickens to the slaughterhouse).  After about a week the chick is doing well. 

Running around on his little orange legs.

 
The rest of the farm is doing pretty well.  The fruit is doing great.  We've had a bumper crop of strawberries and our trees are doing great.  The cherries in particular are going great guns.

With the large image hopefully you can see all the cherries. 

 With the trees we are trying a system of sticky balls hanging from limbs to catch bugs.  Since we had no fruit last year,  we will have to see how they work this year.

It's not a mega cherry, or a candy apple, but a bug trap.

The garden has been a mixed bag so far this year;  though it is early yet. On the good side the potatoes are coming in well and the Swiss chard is growing strong.  Some of the other plantings are a bit slow.  But we have hope there is much more to come!

Spotty growth in parts.  Lettuce and some spinach making an effort.

Potatoes doing pretty well

The Swiss chard is happy