Hey, what’s that cute chick’s name?

The ballots are in, and after much deliberation, the little ones have officially been named. The powers that be (more or less) followed the voter’s wishes, with a few deviations here and there: some voter irregularities, a few behind-the-scenes manipulations – hey, pretty much like a normal election, right?

The little ladies have grown A LOT this week – tail feathers have bloomed and wings are developing more contrast – and they are less and less interested in posing for photos. Not to mention that Hope has honed her I-am-Mama-hear-me-squawk attitude and become quite a fearsome force of feathers and beak. This morning’s photo session was interesting, to say the least.

Coco, the Easter Egger

Lucy, the Speckled Sussex

Luna, the Silkie

Tulip, the Black Copper Marans

Pippa, the Belgian Mille Fleur d'Uccle

Most of the names were frontrunners in the poll, although Tulip does come out of left field. The CE had reserved naming rights for the Black Copper Marans and none of the proffered names were suiting him. We were having lunch together yesterday and musing on names that evoked the glossy black sheen of the Black Copper Marans’ feathers, when I had a memory flash about Tulipmania in the Netherlands in the 16oo’s, recounted in Michael Pollan’s fine book, Botany of Desire, and, of course, in The Black Tulip, by Alexandre Dumas, pere.

"Queen of the Night" is the closest hybridists have come to creating a black tulip (image from Google)

So Tulip it is for the BCM and we will save the other favorite suggestions – Pixie, Lila, Cayenne and others, for a future crop of little ones. Because there will always, hopefully, be more chickens…

"You can have their names, but I am NOT giving out their phone numbers!"

Happy weekend! Thanks to everyone who voted!

A real chicken dinner.

No, we didn’t put the flock in a pot, but some distant cousins did grace our table last night. Ashleigh made a divine roast chicken dinner. I know there is a moral dilemma inherent in both eating and raising chickens, but that is a subject for another post. We also had some yummy cauliflower and other vegetables, the Snap Pea Salad recipe (you can see it at the end of this post if you’re  interested) that the Union Square Cafe kindly shared with me when we were in NYC, and an amazing homemade strawberry/raspberry sorbet. It was a spectacular meal!

The conversation, of course, turned to the new chicks, and someone had the bright idea of bringing some of them inside for a visit:

Do something cute while we're watching!

Chicken dinner or chicks having dinner?

Silkie against NYC skyline. Kind of. You had to be there to appreciate it.

Little Miss d'Uccle cries for Mama, who was NOT pleased with us swiping her babies

So. Not. Amused.

 

Sugar Snap Pea Salad with
Pancetta, Pecorino and Mint

Serves 6

 

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 pound sugar snap peas,
trimmed at each end

¼ pound pancetta, cut into
1-inch x 1/8^th-inch lardoons

2 tablespoons minced red
onion

⅛ cup lemon juice

⅛ cupChampagne, or white wine vinegar

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

2-3 tablespoons finely sliced
mint

5 tablespoons grated Pecorino
Romano cheese

2-3 teaspoons Fleur de Sel (sea salt)

1 teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper

 

1. Bring 3 quarts water to boil in a large pot and
   add the kosher salt.  Have ready a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking of the peas.  Cook the peas in the water for just 10
   seconds.  Drain the peas in a colander
   and immediately add them to the ice water.
   Remove the peas from the ice water after about 2 minutes.  Drain well in the colander and gently
   pat dry with a paper towel.
   Julienne the peas by cutting them on a sharp diagonal.  Set the sliced peas aside in the
   refrigerator.

 

2. Place the pancetta and 1 tablespoon of water into
   a 10-inch sauté pan set over low heat.
   Stir the pancetta gently with a wooden spoon to separate while it
   heats up.  The water will eventually
   evaporate and the pancetta will begin rendering its fat (approximately 4-5
   minutes).  Turn the heat up to
   medium and cook, stirring and scraping the pan often until the pancetta is
   completely rendered and crisp (another 4-5 minutes).  Drain the pancetta in a colander set
   over a bowl.  Set aside the crisped
   pancetta at room temperature.

 

3. Place the minced onion in a non-reactive bowl
   large enough to mix the pea salad.
   Pour in the lemon juice, vinegar, and olive oil, and stir to
   combine with the onions.

 

Place the peas, pancetta, mint, 4 tablespoons of the
pecorino, the Fleur de Sel and ground
black pepper into the bowl with the vinaigrette.  Mix the salad, taste, and adjust the
seasoning to your liking.  Sprinkle the
remaining tablespoon of Pecorino over the salad, and serve.

 

Henpecked!

The chicks are growing so fast! Since Hope is raising them, I haven’t really gotten close enough to take individual pictures of them, so the CE and I endeavored to “borrow” the babies for a photo shoot this morning.

This did not go over well with the little ones or their mama!

The chicks peeped bloody murder – apparently they have no awareness of who changes their food and water several times a day and they think all those crickets and mealworms truly drop from the sky. And Hope! Our sweet, docile Hope! She actually pecked us! Not violently, but purposefully, just one peck each, as if to prove that Mama is the boss around here.

We managed to get a few pix in spite of the ruckus – maybe these will give you a few more naming ideas. We’ll wrap up the naming decisions by Saturday at the latest.

The Speckled Sussex is the feistiest of the group. Is she a Lucy maybe? Or an Athena?

the Silkie! I think she looks like a Luna.

The little EE. Pretty girl!

The Black Copper Marans

The proud little d'Uccle. Is she a Pixie?

Don't mess with me OR my babies!

Just trying to blend in amidst all the commotion...

Name that chick!

Drum roll please! Here is the highly anticipated chick-naming poll!

There was a highly un-scientific winnowing of the name submissions from Saturday by a panel of, um, dare I call them judges? If your submission did not make the cut, you can blame them. Hopefully you will see some names here that you like, and, if inspired, you can always submit additional names. Feel free to indicate through comments if there’s a name you think should go with a specific chick.

I thought it might be helpful for you to first see what the little girls will look like when they’re all grown up:

a Belgian Mille Fleur d'Uccle chick - you will remember ours as the tiniest of the bunch (image from mypetchicken.com)

Here's a photo of an award-winning Mille Fleur hen (Sun Crest Belgians)

Black Copper Marans chicks (photo from Mypetchicken.com)

A Black Copper Marans hen (photo from Mypetchicken.com)

An Easter Egger (Ameraucana) chick like ours (photo from Mypetchicken.com)

Here's an Easter Egger hen, but ours could vary in coloration. For example, Autumn is also an EE. (photo from Mypetchicken.com)

A little Silkie chick like ours (photo from Mypetchicken.com)

An adult Silkie hen! (Photo from Mypetchicken.com)

Last but not least: a Speckled Sussex chick (photo from Mypetchicken.com)

She will look something like this as an adult. Like the d'Uccles, Speckled Sussex chickens develop more "spangles" with successive annual molts. (photo from brbpoultry.co.uk)

Meet Mama Hope and her Baby Chicks!

Success!!!! It worked! I tiptoed into the coop after lunch this afternoon, and was greeted by this:

She's such a good little mom!

She's telling them to get back under for nap time!

I could hardly believe it! All the chicks are popping in and out from under Hope – taking little exploratory walks, getting a sip of water or a bite of food, and then looking up at her inquisitively before they dive back under her warmth. She has accepted them as her own and seems to know just what to do. Hopefully all will continue to go well. Many thanks to all the “experts” at backyardchickens.com whose good advice kept us on track!

To brood or not to brood; that is the question…

The chicks had an excellent day yesterday – all of them skittering around the brooder and having a lot of fun exploring their new world. All of which changed abruptly when half of the babies left to set up housekeeping with another family.

And then there were five...the other chicks in the order went to their new home yesterday

My friend Denise kindly adopted the extra chicks

Our little gang

The Black Copper Marans chick

And Miss Silkie - I might call her Princess Grace

We’ve decided to see if our very broody Hope might like to raise our little ones. She’s been convinced for a month that she’s hatching eggs, so we’re giving her a chance to prove that she REALLY wants to be a mom.

The first thing we learned is that we needed to move the nesting area OFF the counter and onto the floor to keep the babies from falling. When we built the coop, we put the nesting boxes at counter height to make it easier for me  to access the hens and the eggs, since bending is a no-no with my hypermobile spine. The CE piled up every imaginable item he could find to block Hope’s entrance to the counter nesting area yesterday afternoon:

We sent Hope packing for a bit so we could re-arrange things in the coop

No way she's getting past all that stuff!

Although she's definitely giving it some determined thought!

She anxiously paced around the coop for awhile

But eventually responded to the lure of golf balls (fake eggs!) and lots of scratch hand-outs, and settled into the new nesting spot.

Then we set our alarm for 5:30 am, although I’ve been awake since 3 in anticipation of Project Broody! The idea is to slip the chicks under the broody hen in the dead of night, with the presumption that by light of day, the bird of little brain thinks her imaginary eggs hatched and she will then happily mother the chicks. I’ve seen this process referred to as “grafting” chicks onto a broody hen.

Most people slip the chicks underneath the hen late at night but we couldn’t imagine them going without food and water that long, so we waited until the early morning hours. No idea if that will affect the outcome or not.

Hope after we slipped the babies beneath her. She clucked quite a bit and ruffled her feathers, but so far, so good.

The CE was initially concerned that the chicks might suffocate under there, but I’ve been reassured by backyardchickens.com experts that they will be fine. Apparently the hen keeps her weight on her legs, thereby suspending herself like a warm, billowy tent above the babies.

After several hours, however, we became concerned that the chicks needed a food and water break, so we liberated them briefly. They didn’t seem all that hungry – hope that’s not a bad sign. A few of them took a sip of water and a bite of food but since they didn’t seem ravenous, we gathered them back up and put them back under Mama. She has pecked at them a few times but not aggressively – we’re hoping it’s just her way of reminding them they belong underneath her. We shall see…

A wee jail break

"Could someone please tell me what's going on down there?"

The issue at hand is whether Hope accepts these little ones as her own or decides motherhood isn’t really for her after all. We have to monitor her very closely because if she rejects the chicks she could possibly try to kill them. So we watch and wait – if she rejects the chicks we will raise them in the cardboard brooder and introduce them to Hope and Autumn in a few months. If she accepts them, they will live and grow up in the coop with their mom and Auntie Autumn. Time will tell…

Chick Heaven!

The babies are here!

For those of you who can and want to see them in person, the little ladies are going to have an Audience on Saturday afternoon from 3 – 5 pm. There won’t be as many of them here since a friend is coming to pick some of them up this afternoon, but there will still be four or five little cuties to pass around. Let me know if you’re planning to attend.

This is the box they were shipped in - all arrived healthy and alert!

I checked with our mail carrier yesterday afternoon and he assured me no chicks had arrived for us that day. So it came as quite a surprise to get a phone call at 5:50 from the post office, saying that they would be closing in ten minutes and I needed to come get my chicks. Yikes! Good thing I have a lead foot and know the back way to the post office!

Hanging out at the water cooler

The CE and I dipped their beaks in the water and showed them their food, and in no time the ten little beauties were eating, drinking and pooping up a storm.

The large dark one on the left is a Black Copper Marans; they are French birds known for laying chocolate-y brown eggs

These little munchkins are Belgian Mille Fleur D'Uccles - they will be gorgeous bantams

I think this is an Easter Egger (like Autumn) but not 100% sure

That extremely precious little girl on the right is a Silkie! So excited to have that little fluff ball!

There will be more (probably endless) pix later but wanted to let everyone know right away that they arrived safely.

Chicken Drama: a Broody, Wind Eggs, and Baby Chicks on the Way!

Bear with me and re-wind just one more time to early May. We were in NYC, and  just about to leave our apartment for a long-awaited lunch at Balthazar when the phone call came: “Hope’s not moving”.

Our hearts sunk, because this was exactly what happened to Amelia before she died.

Poor Amelia. We still don't know what caused her death.

There’s a cab driver in NYC who is probably still talking about the wacko couple who spent fifteen near-tearful minutes in his backseat talking about what might be wrong with their pet chicken.

Ashleigh and Paul were back in CA watching the animals for us, and Ashleigh was, thankfully,  taking her chicken-sitting duties quite seriously. So when Hope didn’t leave the nestbox for 24 hours, she knew something was wrong.  We dispatched her and Hope to the vet, but told her to be prepared for the worst. Our waitress at Balthazar probably thought we were discussing a beloved relative as we pondered Hope’s plight over our steak frites (God knows we couldn’t order chicken!)

She doesn't look sick, does she?

You can only imagine our relief when Ashleigh called back and said “She’s going to be fine! The vet says she’s just gone broody.”

I’ve read about broody hens and posted about broody hens (June, 2009: http://polloplayer.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/what-broody-means-in-chickenspeak/ ) but until you’ve come face to beak with a broody hen, you know not of what you speak. This is a force of nature to be reckoned with, the ultimate embodiment of biology as destiny: in short, Hope is POSSESSED!

She hasn’t laid an egg in weeks, so I don’t know what she thinks she is hatching. A plot? A plan? Certainly not any baby chicks. But don’t tell her that.

"I don't know what your problem is. I'm on the nest, where I belong."

We take her off the nest two or three times a day, lock the coop up and set her out on the lawn so she will be forced to get up, walk around and eat and drink. She does this reluctantly. For the first five or ten minutes she just sits on the grass looking dazed. Then it’s as if a switch has flipped; she gets up, cleans her feathers a bit, struts over and takes a sip from the dogs’ outside water bowl, begs for some Cheerios, and then gets that strange look in her eyes again and tries to beat it back to her nest. The other day, she was so upset at finding the coop closed that she flew up on my shoulder and refused to budge until I let her back inside to sit on her imaginary clutch of eggs. As an empty nester myself, I guess I should have more compassion, but, really, Hope, get over it!

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: that Hope is one crazy chick"

Meanwhile, Autumn has developed her own little quirk. She is laying what I’ve learned are called “wind eggs”. They are shell-less, yolk-less and look as much like a deflated balloon as anything. In fact, they don’t really look like they were worth the trouble it took to lay them.

How sad is that?

The cause of wind eggs seems to be in the wind, as they say. I haven’t found anything conclusive about the topic. A site called CityGirlFarming.com  http://citygirlfarming.com/Chickens/ChickenEggProblems.html refers to these eggs as “fart eggs” and suggests that the cause could be “a small chunk of tissue comes loose in the egg production area of the hen and is mistaken as a yolk. The process immediately surrounds this hunk of tissue and creates an egg around it.”

Broad Leys Publishing, a UK site at http://www.blpbooks.co.uk/articles/egg_problems/egg_problems.php, says that wind eggs are “not important and can be ignored, unless the pullet continues to lay such eggs. Wind eggs can also occur in older hens if they are subject to sudden shock.”

Autumn is only two years old, and as far as we know the only recent shock the chickens have encountered is the sight of the newly-shaved Codester.

"Wow. And I thought I had problems..."

The upshot of all this is that there are no edible eggs being laid at the moment. Good thing baby chicks are arriving next week! Yes, we are about to set up the nursery again – four little ones are due to show up courtesy of the US Post Office either on Tuesday or Wednesday. Polloplayer readers will be the first to know!

Amelia

The chicks are three weeks old today. Here are the newest photos of Amelia, and one that shows what she will look like as an adult.

Isn't she pretty?

These boots are made for walking!

I think I'll start my own blog...

Eggs from a Light Brahma

Visitors.

The chicks had a busy day on Tuesday. Some people came all the way from the East coast to satisfy their curiosity: “Why chickens?” I think they’re converts!

Chloe gives the tour

"Chickens to the rescue!", right, Evie?

Checking out the coop progress

Day traders too busy for chickens