New Farmstead Member!

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

. NO NAMING the chick!

A wise move . We don't name them until the middle of their first year with us. By then you know their personality and hopefully what does and doesn't fit . Though if they come with names (some of the rescues have come with names) we generally keep those names .

Mind you some of our names need work. 6 of my rescues were all near identical once they actually had some feathers on them (which took quite some time) and because of their love of my herb patch and the fact that they are lavender aruncanas, we named them rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage, lavender and coriander! Only lavender and thyme are still alive sadly.
We also had Judith, Judith's sister (who was actually called number 4 in Cornish only we couldn't remember it much less pronounce it, so ...) then there was Silver and Silver's sister . Within the pairs they were identical, then each pair was identical except for the tail feather colour. On one pair it was dark brown and on the other it was light brown/gold but so pale it looked almost blond in colour and given we had one called gold at the time she became silver. Then there's speckles, (whose colouring is speckled, and speckles 2 or big speckles. And so on . But there's also JJ and Arya, Julia White and Miss Prim, Stacy, Lilly and Tilly.

 

[Mountain Cat]

BTW, another hen has hatched out a chick. It's not her own chick (genetically), but she's making a great foster Mom so far. I try not to hover too much, and I make sure there's water at a level the chick can access. Mama has a special vocalization that she sounds to protect her chick and keep it close - also I'm sure body warmth helps. So fascinating to watch!

This chick looks exactly like that first chick (but without bad feet/legs).

Child Protective Services (me) plans not to intervene, like I did with the first broody hen's hatching. Although this Mama apparently pecked her first hatch to death in the neck after it hatched - still in the nesting box but away from the egg shell. Didn't seem to be anything wrong with that chick - I looked... maybe Mama was a bit confused for a first hatching egg?

She had a total of five eggs. The first died as above, the second seems to have been squished to death before it completely removed itself from the shell, the third and the fourth started pipping out at the same time, but one of those never got beyond pipping, while the other is the survivor discussed above. A fifth fetus died at least a few days prior in the egg. Actually, it is possible that egg never was fertilized, as I didn't get to candle these. Mama didn't want to leave her clutch in the evenings...

Foster Mom is a black Australorpe, Dad is that silver laced Wyandotte, genetic Mom has to be a buff Orpington (one of two as the once-broody third Orpington apparently was not yet ready to drop eggs again at the time of laying.)