Poultry Progress at the Farm

By: Meredith Doubleday, Public Programs Intern

Since Marieanne’s last broody coop update, we have had a lot of poultry excitement. Most of our eggs have hatched, and we now have chicks, poults, goslings, and a duckling scurrying around the Lippitt Farmstead.

On May 18^th, our broody hen hatched three Dominique chicks. Marieanne fed them the traditional 1840s diet: a mixture of chopped hard-boiled eggs with breadcrumbs, oatmeal, and milk. It was quite an experience to hold in my hand a trembling bundle of new life. As I gingerly held this ball of feathers, its quiet cheeps were a delicate contrast to the persistent clucking of the mother hen nearby.

Now, a month later, they have been out of the coop for a few weeks and are no longer mothered and guarded so closely by the broody hen. They are starting to look and act much more like grub-pecking chickens.

Though I have spent most of my life in either Otsego or Herkimer County, I have never lived on a farm nor raised poultry so I was unprepared for the following. I had always assumed that chickens would only set on chicken eggs, and turkeys would only nest on turkey eggs. However, I soon discovered that this was not the case!

A chicken hen nested on five duck eggs and hatched two ducklings on June 4^th. Not one, but two hens played mama duck with the ducklings as they adjusted to the world (or the coop) around them. Like chicks, ducklings also had a very specific regimen: usually a wet mash of bran, flour, cornmeal and beef scrap moistened with water. Unfortunately, only one duckling survived, but I managed to get a picture of both of them following one of their “mama” hens when they were just a week old.

Our one duckling is now growing rapidly, but it still thinks it is a chicken! Hopefully soon it will realize it has webbed feet and will waddle into the water.

As Marieanne mentioned in her last post, our turkey hen was sitting on nine eggs in the turkey house. On June 6^th, one of the eggs hatched. Much to our surprise it was not a poult but a chick! A chicken must have snuck into the turkey hen’s nest and laid an egg unbeknownst to the turkey and farmers alike. Since turkey and duck eggs take twenty-eight days to hatch, and chicken eggs take only twenty-one, the five poults hatched a almost a week later on June 12^th and 13^th. Here is a picture of two of the baby poults exploring the barnyard on their second day.

The last fowl update is news on our goslings. They are now over two months old and always travel in a cackling mass. Their voices are starting to change as they mature into grownup geese.

Come to the Lippitt Farmstead and visit our growing brood of our lively feathered friends!

Poultry News at Lippitt Farmstead

By: Marieanne Coursen, Agricultural Interpreter

Here is a May update from Marieanne - stay tuned for a more recent update and pictures of the chicks next week!

It is May 15th and our Mama Hen is doing great. Eleven eggs were set under her on April 27th in the broody coop. Every day we let her out late in the morning. I always have to pick her up off the nest and push her out the door of the coop.

Once she is out, she has a regular routine. She scratches in the garden eating worms and insects, clucking constantly and puffing out her feathers like a typical broody hen. At some point she squawks and runs for a short distance, and she spends quite a bit of time dusting in the dirt.

Then she eats the food I have put out for her and drinks some water. I feed her a mix of whole grains – corn, barley, oats and wheat. I have looked in several poultry books from the 19th century and they all recommend feeding only whole grains to a broody hen although they don’t explain why. My guess is that she shouldn’t eat a diet that is formulated for laying hens since she isn’t laying eggs at this time; and I also think the whole grains go through her system more slowly which is probably a good thing since she only gets to eat once a day. Because she is eating whole grains it is particularly important that she has access to grit which is readily available in the garden in the form of small stones.

The first few days I had to herd her back into the coop after a half hour but soon she started going back on her own. As we get closer to hatch date she seems to stay out for a shorter time and she always goes back more quickly on cool day.

We found one of the eggs broken one day. I think it probably cracked when the hen was picked up to go out for the day because I heard the sound of 2 eggs clacking together and 2 days later we found the broken egg pushed out of the nest. So there are 10 eggs left that will hopefully hatch on Wednesday, May 18th. In other poultry news, our turkey hen has laid 9 eggs so far in the barrel we placed on its side in the turkey house. Another chicken hen is setting on 5 duck eggs. And we have added 8 goslings to the farm. They hatched on April 18th and arrived by mail on April 20th. With all this activity on the farm, I am finding it harder and harder to get away to the computer so we may have to rely on Facebook postings for a while for the new news from the farm or better yet, come see us for real and check out the latest farm happenings!

We’ve Got a Broody Biddy!

By: Marieanne Coursen, Agricultural Interpreter

One of our hens has been in a nest box in the chicken house every time I look in.  I tied a string to her leg to make sure it was indeed the same hen every time since they all look alike.  She definitely appears to be a broody hen, in other words she is done laying eggs for now and wants to “set” or sit on eggs until they hatch.  She has that “Do Not Disturb” look about her:

I placed 3 duck eggs under her to help her stay in the mood while I got the broody coop ready.  I used duck eggs because we collect the eggs from the nest boxes twice a day so it is easier to remember which eggs to leave alone should the broody hen be off the nest.

 Meanwhile the new broody coop was moved to the Lippitt garden. 

I left out the wood floor for now because the dampness of the ground is beneficial to the development of the eggs.  I chopped some straw nice and short and placed it in the coop.  If left long, the straw can get caught on the hen’s feet when she leaves the nest and she could drag the eggs out.  Then I hollowed out a spot in the back of the coop and placed three eggs in it.  The coop was ready.

The hen must be moved in the dark so that she is more likely to accept the new location.  This was rather inconvenient since I am not at work when it is dark but it just so happened that I would be in town last Wednesday evening for dinner.  So during the day on Wednesday I dusted Mama hen with Ectiban and that night she was quietly moved to her new location.  The Ectiban prevents lice and mites.  I sprinkled some in the nest also.  In 1845 sulphur was used for this purpose.   Chickens like to “dust” or lay in the dirt flapping their wings and rolling around to get the dirt down in their feathers and then shake themselves as their own prevention against parasites. 

Unfortunately I would not be back at work again until the following Tuesday, but the hen was in good hands with farmers Wayne and Rick while I was gone.  On Thursday Wayne let her out to eat, dust and exercise.  She did just that, but instead of going back in to the broody coop, she went back to the henhouse and her old nest box.  Wayne had to catch her and put her back in the coop.  He decided to leave her in there and put food and water in the coop until I got back. 

This was her probationary period to see if she was really going to stay devoted to the nest and her job as broody hen.  Today I am back at work and so I let her out again.  When I opened the roof of the coop she was sitting tight to the nest of eggs.  I had to chase her off so I would say she is definitely still in broody hen mode.  She spent about a half hour eating and dusting.  She almost went back to the nest on her own but in the end I had to catch her and put her back.  I would prefer that she go back on her own but it may take a few days for her to understand the routine.

She was fun to watch while she was out and about.  The had her tail feathers all fluffed up and she had an important, busy air about her, clucking the entire time.

So the plan is that tomorrow I will let her out about the same time again to eat and exercise.  While she is busy outside, I will replace the 3 eggs with the 11 eggs I want her to hatch.  Then the countdown will begin.  Everyday she will be let out of the coop at about the same time and I will make sure she doesn’t stay out more than a half hour – less time if it is really cold.  Stay tuned for updates on how it is going with Mama hen and her clutch of eggs!