Chick with Crooked Toe

We discovered one of our new chicks has crooked toe.  It can be serious or not.  It makes them difficult to scratch for bugs and food and to roost to sleep, but some chickens have long productive lives with it.  There is some debate on how it happens, I have heard vitamin deficiency, birth injury and genetic malformation.  I don't know which is right! 

The little one

It's toes should be straight out - not curled like that!

 We read up on it and it seems to be correctable - sometimes.  So we decided to try.  First we made a little sandal out of cardboard like The Chicken Chick showed on her website.  It did not work for us.  It took forever to get on and then it fell off within minutes.  So we made a splint with pipe cleaners and surgical tape.

All splinted up!

Hoping this helps correct it for her!

We contacted the man we bought her from, just to let him know.  We didn't blame him at all - things happen!  But he was very apologetic and brought us 3 replacement chicks for free!  They were wonderful to deal with and I highly recommend Fisher's Farm and Feathered Friends if you are in the market for new chickens!

Transporting baby chicks in a Bojangles box.  It's just wrong!

All our newest babies!  8 Easter Egger chicks to add to my flock!

Update on all the chicks!

I have a sad update.  Only one of the chicks made it.  The three injured ones passed away within the next two days and another seemed fine, but suddenly passed one morning.  That just left us with one lonely little chick.  Chickens are extremely social and they do very badly by themselves.  We ended up finding some friends for her!  I found a home hatchery about an hour away that raised gorgeous and rarer breeds.  He had some Easter Egger chicks that were the same age as our little chick for only $3 a piece!  I can't wait for those blue, green, or pink eggs!

The brown one in the middle is our little survivor.  Doesn't it look so happy with it's new friends?

 And a little update on our other chicks!  We moved Mama and her 5 chicks into the coop with the other chickens.  Mama had a few big scuffles with the other hens when they tried to peck her babies, but she went Kung Fu Chicken on them and literally wrestled them into submission!  It was amazing to watch.  No one is messing with Mama or babies now! 

They are in that awkward teenage stage, but mama loves them.  They stick close to her!

And gratuitous pictures of my other lovely ladies!

Broody Hen Take 2

Letting our hen raise her chicks went so well we another hen went broody I got some fertile eggs from a friend and placed them under her.  We were so excited on day 21 to hear peeping!  Only to find that the mom was pecking and kicking the babies out of the nest as soon as they were born! 

We quickly rescued them and realized we needed to raise them ourselves.  So we set up a bood and heat lamp in the corner of our living room.  There was one little yellow one with a neck wound, a little brown easter egger in really bad shape, a little black one that looks like it was pecked on the stomach and a brown easter egger and black australorp that look fine.  There was 3 more eggs that hadn't hatched and we didn't hear anything for them so I don't think they finished developing.  Hopefully we can nurse these babies back to health!  Claire and Chandler say they want to eat "that bad mom"!

The perpetrators

The little box in our living room

Claire's 7th Birthday!

Claire had her birthday earlier this month.  We celebrated her birthday as a family the weekend before and on her actual birthday we had a homeschool co-op field trip planned.  We headed to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and the kids got to help the park ranger catalog the salamanders in the woods.  They had so much fun.  Then we headed to the next town and had a picnic and the kids played in the pool.  Best birthday ever!

My 7 year old!

My silly Chandler

Yum!  We had a Brave themed cake, strawberry shortcake, watermelon, chocolate eclair cake and brownies!

Fiona!

She loved her cake.

Claire looking so grown up.

At Mingus Mill on her actual birthday!

They loved the water

Talking to the park ranger

Claire found a salamander!

In the pool!

My goofball son.

Candle in her dessert that night.

I can't believe my baby is 7 years old!

Baby Bunnies!

Get ready for a cuteness overload! 

Mrs. Sugarfoot's babies hopped out of the nestbox.  What sweet bunnies! 

This little one is our favorite.  I am thinking about keeping this one!

Looks like Daddy!

The shyest one.  It was hard to get this little ones picture!

Claire loves the babies!

Mrs. Sugarfoot and her babies

Mocha and her one baby.  Poor little thing was the only survivor of a litter of nine.  But it was Mocha's first litter so she will get another chance.  She has been a good mama to this little one.

And our newest addition is a 6 week old Flemish Giant doe!  We named her Ginger.  I love her already!

Meet Ginger!