I’ve never been that great in math….can you tell? My dilemma with the finite solution of 7 to the equation in the title, doesn’t lend to the possibility of the three waiting in the wings…so to speak. Technically, 3 + 4 does = 7…but I think it is more fun to ponder the possibility of 10….because right now, the possibility does exist!!
The last time I updated on our Christmas brood, we had three hatchlings….now there are SEVEN!!! They seem to be hatching a day apart from each other. One chick, #6 – or better known as William Jr. (long story there), had a difficult time hatching. I got a bit anxious and got involved a little too much with the process by breaking the shell, leaving unnatural break-lines, and weaknesses to the shell.
Cracked egg…I started to help the process.
I was getting over anxious, it had been a couple of hours, so I chipped away a little more of the shell
A couple of hours later, I felt the chick was struggling, I had broken the shell too much, and Chardonnay was pecking at the baby. I took it inside to finish hatching.
After a short time, Chardonnay sensed something wrong, and started pecking at the exposed chick, not the shell. At this point I removed the hatchling from the nest, and brought her inside the house. We did not yet have an incubator so I made a warm area underneath my bathroom sink utilizing a lamp, a cup of water for humidity (my husband’s idea), and a heating pad underneath the box wherein I placed the shell.
Warm area under the sink to help William Jr. finish hatching.
If this little one survived, GREAT, if not, at least we gave it a chance. Chardonnay was not going to be so nurturing. After a couple of hours, my daughter, Roni, checked on William Jr….he (hopefully a hen not a rooster) had hatched and looked pretty weak.
Within minutes, like maybe a half an hour, it was obvious that this chick was strong and completely normal!! I then took it out to Chardonnay…here is what happened next…..
That night, one more egg hatched under Chardonnay, leaving the count of four yet to hatch. Mama hen became so busy with her brood, that she started leaving the nest for longer periods of time. She would allow the eggs to cool down a lot, and with the temperatures as they have been, I was afraid that these eggs wouldn’t get a chance to hatch if they were, in fact, viable. We gathered the four and put them in the incubator. Yesterday, December 27th, the first of the four hatched at about 5 P.M. At about 8:30 P.M. I brought the chick to Chardonnay. She was sitting on her nest…all the chicks were under her. I set this little one down in front of her, she looked sideways at it..cooed, lifted her breast, and the little one scooted right under her!! Checking this morning…that 14 hour old chick is doing GREAT…swallowed some water as I dipped her beak into the water dish, and ran around with the brood pecking at food that Chardonnay kicks up for them. I’m a happy Chicken Mama!!
BTW, another egg in the incubator is currently chirping….within the next few hours, we should have # 8!!!
Build Me a Dream 
Comments on: "Three Plus Four = Ten??" (2)
Hey Tami, Cool story. I love how the Hen knows these are her chicks and takes care of them. Soon you will have twiice as many as you started with.
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Tony is going to have to expand the chicken house…hahaha…maybe not, but a bit of a redesign is probably in order…maybe an addition!! I think an atrium might be nice..hahaha!
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