Glen Hill Farm: Operation Adoption

Welcome to Glen Hill Farm little chipmunks! I mean little chickies!
(But don't they look just like chipmunks?)
So cute! They are Welsummer chicks

FRIDAY

Tonight's the night. We are going to sneak into the tack room and replace the eggs that Mayzie has been sitting on with the 2 four-day-old Welsummer chicks we got on Thursday!

Truthfully, we were planning to put these chicks under Mayzie last night, but I got cold feet.

I picked up the chicks yesterday morning (Thursday) from the store and they spent the day in a brooder under a heat lamp with plenty of food and water. We were just waiting for the sun to set before we brought them out to Mayzie. (Adoptions work best when the chicks are placed under the broody hen in total darkness.)

Unfortunately, when the sun finally set, one of the new chicks just didn't look great to me. She seemed very weak and she couldn't open one of her eyes. Uh oh. I added some Sav-A-Chick Electrolytes to their water and washed her eye with saline solution. This seemed to help, but I decided not to bring them out to Mayzie after all. If she didn't survive the night, I would never know if it was because of her health or because of Mayzie, and I didn't want to take that risk. All chicks are pretty fragile their first few days. So we waited.

Happy to report that she seems to be doing much better today (Friday). And it turns out she had a good reason for keeping that one eye shut....her sister has a bad habit of pecking her in the eyes! Poor thing. Sadly, this is normal for chicks. They see something bright and shiny and they peck it. Even their sister's eye. :( I'm hoping that this behavior will stop when they are out with Mayzie because there will be more interesting things to peck at that isn't someone's face.

Mayzie certainly seems ready for the babies. Here is an adorable video of what a devoted mom she is being to "her" eggs. I ended up giving her real (unfertilized) eggs to sit on. Originally, I had given her fake plastic eggs, but when she was still in the coop with the other hens, she kicked out the fake eggs from her nest and sat on real eggs instead. I got the message. She's no dummy, the plastic eggs don't hold the heat like the real ones do. So she's been very happy on "her" real eggs ever since (They are actually Minerva Louise's and Gertrude's eggs, since hens who go broody like Mayzie stop laying their own eggs.) Here's the video of her settling down nicely on her eggs: Broody Mayzie With Her Eggs Video

9:30 p.m. FRIDAY
We did it! Under total darkness we swapped the two eggs under Mayzie for the two Welsummer chicks. It seemed to go smoothly. There was lots of loud peeping from the babies and lots of clucking from Mayzie. I literally put them right under Mayzie, exactly where the eggs had been. Having never done this before, I wasn't sure if Mayzie's cluckings were happy noises or not. I was so worried! Would they get accidentally squished? Or purposefully rejected? Eventually, the chicks' peeping softened down. And Mayzie's clucking quieted down as well. Okay. That's good, that's good. Right? They're settling in? Or suffocating? How can you tell the difference when you can't see them?! We stayed with them for a loooong time. I was so nervous to leave them unattended. But eventually, I knew I had to trust that Mayzie's instincts would tell her how to be a good mom. So I said a million prayers that the chicks would be safe with Mayzie and wished them a good night.

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SATURDAY

5:30 a.m. Saturday
I set my alarm to wake up before the sun rose. I wanted to be with Mayzie and the chicks before they woke up, just in case. In case Mayzie rejected them, I wanted to be there, so I could make sure she didn't kill them. (Sadly, this is a real risk.) As I opened the tack room door where they are, I heard total silence. Total silence. Eek. I knew that the silence meant that either everyone was sleeping soundly, or that the chicks were dead. It was one or the other. I said one more prayer, took a deep breath and went to check under Mayzie. And there they were! THE CHICKS WERE ALIVE!!! Their cute little eyes peering out at me, and finally some little peeps to say hello. Oh Thank God! Yay chicks! Yay Mayzie! I was so relieved. And so happy for this new little family. And oh my goodness, are they adorable. Here's a video I caught of them on this first morning together. They have been doing great. The chicks pop out to eat and explore and then climb back under Mayzie to warm up and rest. So, so sweet. And Mayzie has been a loving, patient mother so far. Happy momma, happy chicks. Success! So grateful for a happy ending! Actually, really... a happy beginning! Enjoy the video: Mayzie With Her Adopted Chicks video

Now it's time to go check on our 2 week old Silver Grey Dorking chicks and our little 1 week old Easter Egger chick in the brooder. Busy, busy with all of our spring babies! Plus, of course, our grown ladies. We've now got 12 chickens...A perfect dozen! Feeling so lucky.