Chicks
There had been a lot of activities going on in my unfinished garage during a month of June and I happened to find a boisterous source. A clucking of a hen that was ready to lay egg indicated that another hen might be occupying her favorite spot. These hens are very rowdy when their times to lay eggs come. As I heard the noise coming out of one of my hens, my interpretation would be something like this, “Hey, are you done yet? Is it going to be long? I really have to go, you know!” It was like ‘first come, first serve’ scenario. “Sorry, I came here first so you have to wait, lady.” Their clucking would be carried on until their favorite spot was available. Once in a while I would see two hens sitting side by side.
One day I went in to my garage just checking how many eggs they had just laid and I saw the same hen sitting since morning. My guts feeling told me that she was in the brooding mood. As I reached close to her just to check how many eggs she had under, she began to pick on my hand. I also saw two short gray tubes with white caps lying near here. She kept moving them under her as thought those tubes were her eggs that needed guarding. Unless I moved to her to a safer place, she would indubitably be a nice supper of a raccoon or a possum. My husband arranged a palace-like for her comfort in a coop where no other hens could bother her. On that particular day, I counted 10 new eggs and decided to put them all in the nesting area we had just made for her. Mommy (I have been calling this hen for a while now) was very upset after my husband had carried her to a new brooding site. She had nothing to do with those eggs; moreover, she ran around screaming her little head off. It was really a chaotic scene. Since we couldn’t force her sit on the eggs, we were almost hopeless. Then it was like a blinking light popping up on my head, I ran back to my garage to grab those two tubes and put them with the eggs. Strangely, it may sound, my mother hen recognized the tubs and began to sit on the eggs willingly. Twenty-days later, I heard a peeping noise coming out from her body but couldn’t see a thing. The very next day, more sounds started to come out and I noticed the little heads close to her wings. Over all, seven out of ten eggs hatched. I saw two yellow chicks, one completely black (from head to toe), and four black-white chicks. They are so cute but I shouldn’t dare picking them up. Their mommy is very protective. It took her almost two weeks to realize that I’m always with food. The little ones started to have a taste for chopped fresh corn mixed with dry food and water. Their mother would make some kind of noise signaling them to eat.
August 4th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Talking about chickens, one of my hens was acting very strange. One day my husband and I were sitting in a computer room opposite to each other. From his computer, he could see what was going on in the front yard through a thin white transparent curtain. On my spot, I could see only some movements. Our chickens were walking around scratching their ways to find food. Suddenly we heard a noise like a young rooster just learnt how to crow; both of us know well that we have only one big rooster (Ralph). I opened the door and there it was my hen flapping her wings and starting to crow like a rooster. She did it three of four times before sailing away with the rest of the flock. My husband asked, “Did one of the female do that?”
I always talk to my chicken even though they don’t understand me. “Should I call you a female rooster or a rooster hen?” She is the only one hen that has never used her fet to scratch for food on the ground because her toenails are extemely long. I always say, “You’re a weird chicken. You know that?”