A Labor (day) of Love

I've heard it said that raising chickens is a labor of love - and the below story exemplifies that to a "t"!

In August 2019, I was living in Vermont and my husband was living in North Carolina. It wasn't an ideal situation, but we knew it was only temporary. Since we expected him to move to Vermont at some point, I began working on our northern urban farm: garden (check), chickens (check), ducks (check).

I had been living there for nearly 2 years already, so I was familiar with the hiding spots of my free range flock during the heat of the day. However, on this particular day, one of my Silver Duckwing hens was no where to be found. Our property abutted some woods, and it was not unusual for neighborhood cats to go missing - so I began to worry that a predator had taken her. I began walking the property, but didn't see the telltale signs of an attack, which gave me hope.

The best momma ever!

Evening came, with still no sign of my sweet girl. I called the other birds to the coop and tucked them in for the night. At some point the next morning, after all the birds had been let out from their coop, she magically appeared with the flock, digging and scratching around the yard. Later on, she was again gone.

Suddenly, the thought crosses my mind that she is sitting on a clutch of eggs somewhere. While I have both hens and roos, I have only let a broody hen set on eggs one time - and that was when I first started with a flock 10 years earlier - so I wasn't terribly familiar with a setting hen's habits. (And while that was a wonderful experience, I typically prefer ordering day old chicks that have already been sexed.)

I took another walk around the property looking for her, to no avail. Later that day, as I was leaving to run an errand, I noticed movement under one of my hostas. I stopped and peeked - and there was my girl, sitting on 6 lovely eggs!

I stopped in my tracks and started to do the math: these cuties would hatch around the time I had planned to drive to North Carolina for the Labor Day holiday! Thoughts start swirling through my head: This momma and her nest are relatively out in the open - what about those cats I see prowling my neighborhood at night? What about the racoons and possums that trigger my motion sensor spot light? What about the Fisher Cats? There's no way I can leave new baby chicks for the pet sitter to take care of - that would be way too much for her, right?!

I put my errand on hold, and ran back inside to start feverishly googling what my options might be. I didn't want to move her and the eggs into the main coop, as one of my roos has a predisposition to eating eggs, and I didn't have a second coop. But I wasn't even really sure whether moving her and the eggs was even advisable - this is unchartered territory for me. From what I read of other people experiences and thoughts, the overwhelming advice was that at this early stage in the game, the best thing to do would be to remove and discard the eggs. I really didn't need any more birds for my flock - so this advice made sense, but.... baby chicks are just so cute!

As I said earlier, I didn't have the luxury of a second coop - but I did have 4 dogs, and numerous portable kennels of various sizes ranging from XXS to XXL! Since this was a bantam hen, one of the smaller sized kennels would work perfectly. I came to terms with the fact that she may abandon the clutch of eggs if I move her, but I thought it was worth the risk. I grabbed one of the smaller enclosed kennels, filled it with pine shavings, and put a tiny box inside to help keep the eggs in one place. I carefully picked up the eggs from her nest, and placed them in the box with pine shavings, and placed the kennel where her nest was - under the hosta.

That's gonna be a big family!

It worked!!! She returned from scratching around in the yard and immediately went into the kennel and sat on the eggs as if nothing was different - WHEW!!!

Momma in her kennel

I made sure she had fresh food and water, and closed the kennel only at night, giving her the opportunity to play with her flock mates during the day. She was being such a good momma!

I woke up early on the day of our trip down south to prepare for our 12+ hour road trip. I loaded the car with my luggage, plenty of food and water for the three dogs making the journey with me, and plenty of food and water for the momma-to-be. As I was loading the car, I noticed something near the kennel where the hen and eggs were - my heart stopped when I realized it was a cracked egg shell! Did something get in the open kennel and disturb the nest?

Uh oh!

As I bent down and peered in the kennel, something was staring back at me:

Peek-a-boo, I see you!

The first of the babies had hatched!!! I was so excited - so this is what it feels like to be a grandmother!!!

I had been keeping my husband apprised of the situation, and he was none too thrilled that I was even entertaining the idea of traveling with three dogs and a momma hen with six eggs - now that one had hatched, the idea was even more foreign to him.

Since this baby was born in Vermont, I named him (or her) Monty. I took plenty of the obligatory baby pics, but now it was time to get serious! I loaded up the three dogs in the back of the Outback, and then placed the Momma hen, the baby chick Monty, and the 5 remaining eggs in their kennel on the front passenger seat [Seriously, Subaru should make a commercial about this!]. I covered the kennel with a dark towel to help reduce any anxiety induced by travel, and we hit the road.

Every few hours, I would stop to let the dogs out, and I would check for egg shells that were cast out of the nest - and I wasn't disappointed! When we stop, I normally park in the back of the rest area/gas station/ toll plaza/truck stop so the dogs aren't prone to anxiety from all of the traffic. At one stop, there was a trucker parked nearby - and I swear I saw him laughing as I took each dog out one-by-one for a walk and water, and then I pulled the chicken kennel out of the car to dispose of cast-off egg shells. To the best of my knowledge, Monty was joined by York (hatched in upstate New York), Penny (in Pennsylvania), Mary (in Maryland), Ginny (in Virginia), and Caroline (in North Carolina). All six babies hatched out with no issues - it was amazing!

When I arrived at our North Carolina house, my husband could not believe that I had traveled with three dogs and now seven chickens! We had a small coop/run in the backyard, so I put Momma and her babies in the coop for the 5 day vacation, and then back in the kennel for the 12+ hour trip back to Vermont. Every one did great on the return trip, and they have been an exciting addition to our flock. I tell this story often, and get incredulous looks from every single person - but as I said, it is a labor of love!