Jul 27 2009
The Case of the Missing Chicken
Raising my backyard chickens has been a great experience in more ways than one. Since they started laying eggs, it’s been nice knowing that every day there will be at least two fresh eggs waiting for me. When one of the hens decided that she wanted to go “broody” (hatch some eggs) things changed a little. I tried for weeks to discourage her from sitting on the eggs, since I really didn’t care to have any baby chicks right now, but this little momma was not going to take “no” for an answer.
I finally decided to let her have a few eggs to sit on, so I allowed 6 eggs to collect in her nest, and she was one happy little hen. Until ~~ one of the other girls decided she wanted to sit on the eggs too. It was comical each day to go out to the pen and see one hen sitting practically on top of the other, trying to share the egg-sitting duties.
Time passed, the chicks began to hatch one morning, and we kept anxious watch on them to make sure that nothing interfered with their hatching. One little cutie made it’s appearance, then another, while a third was struggling to get completely out of it’s shell. The mother hen (crabby old thing) kept pushing the half-hatched egg out from under her. I finally tired of her obstinance, and took the egg inside with me. I carefully took the rest of the shell off the baby chick (it’s head was stuck to a particularly stubborn piece of shell that it couldn’t get rid of) and hoped for the best. I put a heat lamp over the little one and it was amazing how quickly it went from ugly little wet thing, to fluffly yellow chick.
Meanwhile, back in the chicken pen; the next day when I went out to look, there was only one baby chick ~ and only one egg lying below the nests all alone and unattended on the ground, (the bad egg, so to speak). Let’s see ~ we started with 6 eggs, she hatched out two and I helped the third one ~ so that should leave two eggs in the nest, but there was nothing. We were missing one baby chick and two eggs.
A careful search of the chicken pen proved that there were no holes where anything could have come in or gone out, there were no feathers, no egg shells, no sign of “foul play”. (sorry, I just couldn’t help myself there!)
We are still completely stumped as to what happened to one whole baby chicken and two unhatched or half-hatched eggs. Even if the other two hatched out while we weren’t paying attention ~ how could three of them have made a jail break? (I pictured 4 little chickens, each standing on the back of another, but still they could not have reached the latch.)
Mystery!!! In the chicken yard!!!!!!!!
