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| Chickens at The Lazy Double K Ranch |
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| We got our first chicks (and ducks!) in April 2003. As you can see, at The Lazy Double K Ranch, everyone helps take care of the animals. |
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| By the middle of summer 2003, our chicks and ducks were mature sized. We ended up with 2 roosters, 8 hens, and 2 drake mallard ducks. The hens began laying eggs at the beginning of August, but no regular cycles at that point and we found several multi-yolked eggs as a result! |
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| The picture above was taken in April, 2004. At one year of age, they have begun molting (i.e. their old feathers are falling out and new ones growing in). They can look quite ugly during this phase! |
| We purchased an incubator in early April and have begun incubating 14 eggs. We are not certain what the chicks will look like because as you can see, we have a variety of breeds between the hens and the rooster. |
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| By the end of Summer 2003, we began having some territorial fights between the roosters, and the most aggressive one had begun pecking the ducks and other chickens relentlessly. He became a fried chicken dinner one night, and the fighting ceased. In the meantime, we had an owl take two of our hens, before we were able to get some netting over the top of the pen. Then in early Spring 2004, one of the ducks began attacking the chickens, and he also became meat for the freezer. We now have 6 hens, a rooster (the black and white in the picture at the left), and the one duck left. |
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| At 7 days, you have to "candle" the eggs to make certain they are developing. "Candle" means to shine a bright light through the egg so that you can see the contents. |
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| This is what an egg with no development looks like. |
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| This egg shows normal development- you can see the developing embryo beginning to fill the egg. |
| Normal development at 7 days. |
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| This egg appears to have stopped developing by 14 days, or is slower to develop than the other eggs. |
| Normal development at 14 days. |
| At 14 days, you have to "candle" the eggs again to make certain they are still growing. |
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| The chicks are hatching! May 12, 2004- go to the bottom of the page for updates! (last updated May 17, 2004) |
| At 21 days, we noticed the eggs were moving- occasionally rocking a little! Then at day 22, an egg began to crack open. We could hear little peeping sounds coming from some of the eggs, and on May 11, 2004- the first chick emerged! |
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| We left him in the incubator for about 7 hours until he had dried himself off and was fluffy, then put him in a tub with cedar shavings, water and food. It was very lonely and was most quiet and comfortable when someone either held it in their hand, or even just sat by the tub so it could see us. Several more chicks had "pipped" (put a crack in the eggshell) by last night and we could hear them peeping. Early this morning- May 12, 2004 there were two more newly hatched and very wet chicks! There are also several more cracked eggs, so we expect more chicks later today. |
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| After two days of hatching we gave up on the rest of the eggs which were no longer showing signs of life. We have 7 fluffy healthy little chicks! Three look like the yellow with gray below left, two look like the dark gray one below and the last two are black on top and gray/white underneath. They are beginning to get some real feathers coming in now- they are 4-5 days old. |
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