The Island of Misfit Chickens

Back when the husband and I first got chickens (and the first Buff Orpington rooster), I went out to the coop one October morning to let the chickens out. I was on my way back out the door when I heard a sound I couldn’t immediately identify. Then it dawned on me—it was a chick peeping. I followed the sound to a very protective mama hen sitting on the floor with a little red chick next to her. I ran back into the house and up the stairs to our bedroom and said to the husband, “We have a chick! How did that happen?”

I knew how it happened, but I didn’t know how we managed to overlook a broody hen for three weeks. We had several broody hens that year and got half a dozen chicks, but I haven’t been able to get any other hens to go broody since.

This year, when it was obvious we weren’t going to be able to get any chicks from the farm store, I bought an incubator. I put two dozen eggs in it and waited to see what would happen. The incubator has a timer on it that shows how many days until hatching. Yesterday, we were at day 2, so I was expecting chicks Tuesday or Wednesday.

I checked the incubator last night to make sure the temperature and humidity levels were adequate. This morning, I came down around 5:30 a.m., let Lila out, flipped on the coffeemaker, and then I heard a strange sound. At first, I wondered if we had caught a mouse somewhere. I went to check on the incubator and saw this:

I ran up the stairs and woke up the husband and said, “We have a chick!”

[He says that he always knows when I have some important news to tell him because he can hear me come running up the stairs.]

Soon after, a second chick hatched. I am supposed to leave them in there until they dry out and fluff up. I think a third one may be ready to hatch, too. Chick gestation is supposed to take 21 days, so I am a bit surprised by these early overachievers, but they are peeping and staggering around the incubator—with short stretches of naptime—and appear to be healthy.

These are not going to be purebred chickens. The rooster is a purebred Buff Orpington, but we have four other breeds of hens out there. One of the chicks is white and the other one light brown. The husband is calling this Janet’s Island of Misfit Chickens. I don’t care—I am just happy to have chicks this year.

I commented that in the midst of all this ridiculousness that has been 2020, there are still bright spots. He said, “Did you have any doubt?” and I said “No, but some days it’s harder to see them than others.” And some days, you can’t miss them at all.