Hatching Day

It's finally here, dear reader, hatching day for my first round of fancy little Lavender Cochin chickies! Yesterday was day twenty-one of the incubation cycle, and only one little egg had pipped. This morning, the little lovey had not made much progress, so I took a chance and helped it along by keeping the lining of the egg intact, but breaking up the hard outer shell. I am pleased to share that breaking up the hard outer shell did the trick, and the little fuzzy-footed baby broke free in approximately twenty minutes. Much to my surprise, a second egg pipped, and this strong little fighter made it out of the shell without help in record time. It took approximately twenty minutes from the initial pipping to the hatching.

I incubated sixteen eggs and only have two hatched. Those aren't very good odds, but I am holding onto hope that more will hatch in the next few days. I added four more eggs over the course of three days from the initial group, so there is hope that at least a few of these four will be viable. I was hoping, of course, to hatch all sixteen eggs and then sell the babies to fund my new fancy chicken obsession. However, being that there are only two so far, I believe I will keep these little lovies to add to my fancy little flock. I have sixteen more chochin and frizzle eggs saved to begin a new incubation cycle once this one is over. It's all very exciting.

I am thinking that perhaps my young Lavender Cochin rooster, Roux, may be a little slow in understanding his job, if you know what I mean. Roux is not an overly aggressive and rape-y rooster like the big roosters I have had in the past. He is a gentleman when it comes to the ladies. I don't see him chasing them down, taking them against their will, pulling their feathers, and acting like a testosterone-driven barbarian like the roosters of the past. My darling little Roux even crows like a gentleman. He crows a few times in the early morning and again a few times in the evening to call the girls into the coop, rather than crowing all day long like Romeo did.

Roux is such a gentle rooster that even my Bean, who notoriously hates and fears roosters, adores him. The Bean picks up Roux and cuddles him every chance she gets. I am not sure why I didn't get Cochins sooner. They genuinely are delightful birds. Now, I must be honest, their eggs are smaller than full-sized birds, but I feel the trade-off is well worth it. To have gentle, friendly, and beautiful chickens who lay slightly smaller eggs is much more enjoyable than having crazy-ass full-sized chickens that won't let you get within five feet of them.

While I am on the subject of crazy-ass white chickens, do you know that those mean white hags killed their own young? They did not kill all their young; I still have seven little chicks running around with their crazy mothers. No, dear reader, they only killed the chicks who weren't all white. If a chick had any grey markings, it was pecked to death on its little head. Killing the little chicks sealed the deal for me; I dislike the white hens altogether. Unfortunately, it appears that I will have seven more to add to my flock once these grow up. Perhaps they will be roosters and I can catch them and re-home them. If you would like to add unfriendly, crazy, and murderous hens to your flock, message me, and I will hook you up.

Back to my darling little Cochins. Roux, Jospehine, and Vianne are absolutely delightful. They all three eat out of our hands, come running when I walk outside, squat down to be picked up, allow you to carry them around, and are the most gentle chickens I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. If I weren't fearful of them fighting, I would get another trio, two hens and a rooster, of different colored Cochins. However, I am afraid that the roosters will fight and I will lose one. This, dear reader, is why I need a new chicken coop with separate apartments for each of my cochin breeds. I have my dream coop designed and all planned out; I need to convince one bib overall wearing dream crusher that it is a need rather than a want. If I can successfully hatch and sell more than two chicks, I have a stronger argument for a new coop. Fingers crossed, I successfully hatch at least a few more chicks this round.

It's a disappointingly slow start to building my Cochin chicken empire, but I will get there. I am delighted with the two tiny little lovies who have hatched so far. Seriously, they are so small and cute, I can barely contain my excitement. Of course, I am hoping for hens. If they are roosters, I will have to re-home them. However, they will be the friendliest little roosters one has ever met, between The Bean and me, cuddling them constantly. At this point, I am unsure why everyone does not have at least three Cochin chickens in their backyard flock. I will keep you posted on future hatchings.

On another side note, I hope the snakes in the barn are as successful at hatching eggs as I am. Sigh. I read that a female snake can lay five to thirty eggs in one setting, and frighteningly, the young stay close to where they hatch for the first two years. I don't like to kill anything, but in this case, dear reader, I believe I need a strong garden hoe to remove heads and remedy this problem. I will adopt more barn cats to keep the mice away. However, please don't take this as an open invitation to dump your unwanted kittens at my farm. Jack and Mittens seem to keep all stray cats chased off, and I believe they would kill kittens to protect their home. Also, our barn cats are spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and treated with flea and tick medications. I can't afford to maintain a small army of cats, nor do I want to. I encourage you to be a responsible pet owner and spay or neuter your cats.

Now, hatching thirty Cochin chickies, I can get behind! If only Cochin chickens killed snakes....SIGH. On this overcast Thursday, stay safe and be smart. If you're looking for sweet, beautiful, and friendly Cochins, send me a message. And remember to keep washing your hands.