Peep, Peep, Hooray?

On By Alfredo LanierIn chickens, egg production, rooster, Uncategorized
A story about how a best laid plan went awry

On Saturday morning, animated chirping came from under a plastic tarp that covered a pile of firewood. Curiosity then led Stew to check the source and discover one of our hens guarding a group of seven chicks, one of them hatched so recently its plumage was wet and it struggled to get up on its feet. The hen mounted a fierce guard. When one of our dogs, an eighty-pounder, came sniffing, she blasted out from under the tarp, as if from a cannon, wings flapping and feathers flying, and sent the dog running. Felix had told us before he left for the weekend to keep a bowl of uncooked rice and another with water by the woodpile in case the eggs hatched. And so they did Friday night and the chicks immediately began drinking and pecking at the rice.

The oohs and aahs and picture-taking of this sudden adorableness, however, dissipated Monday morning when Felix announced that all but four of the seven newborns had died apparently when the hen had protectively plopped on them overnight. The same unpleasant surprise came on Tuesday. By now only one chick is alive, the mother still furiously chasing away anyone who comes near.

Our venture into poultry raising began about six months ago, when I mused to Felix that it might be a good idea to convert into a chicken coop a six-by-six-meter netting greenhouse we had built to shield vegetables from marauding grasshoppers. He thought it was such a brilliant idea that the next day he brought a shopping bag with two startled hens; the day after two more hens and a rooster arrived. Suddenly we were the owners of a small feathered platoon we thought would provide with the two or three eggs we normally have for breakfast. A feed store down the road sold a variety of chicken fodder for practically nothing.

Free, organic eggs. What could go wrong?

Just call me Mr. Fernando.

That vision began to fall apart, however, when our poultry-meister Félix revealed he believed in chicken liberation, that we should let them out of the coop during the day and effectively turn our seven and a half-acre ranch into a free-range poultry playground. At night he would shoo them back in the coop. I tried that trick on weekends when Felix wasn’t here but the chickens scampered in all directions whether I screamed at them in English or Spanish. That was indeed my first lesson about raising chickens: Despite their, flighty, bird-brain reputation they are clever little bastards. At night during their cage-free weekends, they would move into our protected front patio and perch on one of the trees, safe from foxes, opossums, road runners and other nighttime predators. In the morning the rooster, which we named Fernando, and his motley harem would saunter by the side garage door, clucking and crowing looking for food. On rainy days they’d huddle under a car. Surprisingly, our four dogs and two cats welcomed the new arrivals with nothing but disdain.

Felix kept delivering two to four eggs each morning. They were smallish eggs, apparently because our hens were small, low-rent girls with smallish cloaca. Later on we bought two larger and more aristocratic specimens with black and white plumage from a breeder nearby, for 150 pesos each or eight dollars apiece. The eggs got larger, though never as large as the jumbo variety sold in the States. However, the free-roaming arrangement quickly became a game of hide-and-seek, as Felix had to spend a half-hour each day guessing where the were the wily hens hid their eggs overnight.

Nice eggs if you can find them.

One hen went AWOL, and refuses to return to the coop at night or reveal where she’s laying eggs, if any. What we know is that at dark she climbs on a lemon tree in the front patio, its feathers fluffed up until the next day when she predictably loiters around the side garage door with her companions, looking for food. She is still on the run and panhandling for food.

Felix then discovered one other missing hen had claimed a cozy spot under the firewood pile, and was incubating about a dozen eggs. He advised against grabbing and disposing of the eggs because it would be cruel, a typical reaction from someone who, surprisingly for a country-bred boy, has the softest heart for animals, an attitude I have nothing but encouraged. Just yesterday we were riding our truck back from putting out the garbage, and he slammed on the brakes and got out to help a small tortoise slowly sauntering across the entrance ramp to the ranch.

So now we have a still cantankerous hen and her one surviving chick. We thought of moving her to the hen house but she won’t let anyone get near. Egg production has gone down to zero, because, according to Felix, hens need to rest after so much commotion and egg-laying. But he has a plan get us through this drought. A woman in his village of Sosnabar sells robust, guaranteed egg-layers for a good price, but only if we buy a dozen, which would bring our chicken population up to sixteen hens plus Fernando. And I can imagine him having a stroke with all those sassy females suddenly clamoring for his attention.

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21 thoughts on “Peep, Peep, Hooray?”

  4. Janet Krem's avatar Janet Krem

    Sorry to hear so many chicks died! If you’re lucky enough to have another brood, then feed them differently and they might stand more of a chance. Chicks need high protein. Overseas, you can buy special chick starter crumbs, but I’m not sure if it’s available here (though try the feed stores just in case). Even adult food would be a better, though, but definitely never uncooked rice. Maybe mix a bit of cooked rice into their feed if you want to use it. Give them access to greens, too. If you’re making your own feed mix, then make sure to add grit so that their gizzards develop properly. Good luck!

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    1. Well thank you! I’ve printed your comment and will keep it for our next batch of chicks, which I hope will work out better than the last. We moved the mother hen and the surviving chick to the coop, along with the other chickens. Thanks again! Long time we don’t hear from you. Al and Stew

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      1. deborahlee1fa0c830a9's avatar deborahlee1fa0c830a9

        My brother’s kids have raised chickens and other poultry in 4H for years. Whenever they go out to eat, which is often (considering they live on a farm), the doggie bag comes home for the chickens. I don’t know how well it would work for chicks, but the chickens are ribbon winners!

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        1. What sort of doggie bag stuff do the chickens eat, though I understand that any green stuff will do. We feed them a head of cabbage or lettuce and they seem to love that. Thanks for your comment and sorry about the delay.

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        2. deborahlee1fa0c830a9's avatar deborahlee1fa0c830a9

          I don’t know if the “show” chickens were fed a special diet, but the ordinary egg-layers got leftover Thai noodles, coleslaw, whatever!

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      2. Janet Krem's avatar Janet Krem

        Lovely to hear back from you! I always enjoy your newsy emails. I’m living a peaceful life out in the campo and am doing well.

        When we lived in rural New Zealand we had chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, ducks etc and so I’ve raised hundreds of baby birds – or at least provided a good environment for the mums to do so. It’s very satisfying, so I hope one of your hens goes broody again and you have another chance!

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  7. norm kwallek's avatar norm kwallek

    I was thinking of your crew a few days ago, if Felix was well, the farm’s status, how the two of you are faring. It sounds like all is well and I’m glad you made an update. I was also wondering about how the new household battery was holding up.

    I grew up with chickens. We kept them in a small barn where we kept pigs and feed for that bunch. We had a grain mill that hooked to the tractor that made the feed up out of the whole grains that we bought or raised ourselves. I ate a lot of eggs. The chickens were kept in a separate area with a brooding coop and a run but they tended to run all over the place. They are messy animals. We had nesting boxes set up, they tended to lay the eggs in them if you kept them clean with fresh straw or leaves from the oak trees on the property. They like oak leaves better than straw or at least ours did in the day. They stayed away from the pigs. A pig thinks a chicken is fine eating…

    Again, thanks for the update, I was thinking of you and yours.

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    1. Hi Norm, thanks again for your always interesting narratives. We have bought two more brand-X Mexican hens and confined the bunch in a ten by ten-meter coop so they can’t complain, but still no eggs. You should write your own blog of reminiscences of growing up on the farm, though probably all the memories may not be pleasant. Thanks again.

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