Art of the Dog: Dawn Secord: Chicks are hatching

Monday, May 25, 2015

Chicks are hatching

Here is a video of our hatching chicks.

https://youtu.be/SJw7--f_b9w

There is a fun story behind the chicks.   Not sure when I started wanting a chicken - seems like forever.   Why - gosh - who knows.   They are a lot more work than ever expected, but I sure enjoy them.

My first chicken was named Belle.   She was a black beauty sex link and I got her as a tiny chick back in probably 1991.   At that time I did murals with my artwork. For fun, I hid Belle Chicken in all my murals - regardless if they were for a children's room or a commerical account.   I can remember when I painted a mural at our veterinarians' clinic.   The mural was to feature dogs and cats of course. Then, hiding behind a fence was...Belle Chicken.   My veterinarian's wife was looking over the mural when it was finished. She started laughing and said, "IS THAT A CHICKEN IN THERE!??" Yes, it was!

So, back to our chicks.... here is their story!

Our chicks are hatching... we had no clue if the eggs had been fertilized. There is a wild bantam hen and a standard rooster that hang out by our barn. The little Bantam hen has been around for years. She really doesn't officially belong to anyone. Some years back she flew into our pool escaping a raccoon.   She is a cute little thing but quite wild.   So, she had made a nest and the dogs found it in the horse arena 21 days ago. She had just laid eggs in it that day. I know that for sure as the dogs would have told me about it previously.

We removed the eggs and the took them along with the bantam hen into our chicken coop with our three Silkies. She was not safe from predictors where her nest was. It was also next to a drain pipe and a serious rain storm was headed our way and expected to hit that night.

The Bantam literally flew the coop ha ha. I mean she officially flew out of there. Guess that's were the saying comes from. so the Silkies ( Daisy and Lilac ) have been sitting on the eggs. The two of them together have been partners in the nest box...and to our surprise the eggs had been fertilized and they are now hatching.

Everything we'd read indicated that the standard roos (rosters) would not be able to fertilize the bantam hen due to their size difference. Guess everything I read was wrong or the hen has been around the neighborhood and has other boyfriends.....though the chick that has hatched is yellow and there are no other white roosters in the neighborhood so, I think white boy is a daddy. He is a big jolly fellow and I've painted him a number of times.   He follows me around and is really quite gentle.   For treats, I give him kernels of corn and he takes them one by one from my fingers as if he were taking them from a baby. So, I'm pretty fond of him.   Sure hope all the chicks that hatch are girls....so don't need another boy around here!

Will post more videos and pictures as we get them!

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Pastel Painting in Progress - French Bulldog

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