Today's post revolves around a video update about where we are at in our own homesteading journey with chickens. It has been a wild time out here with our chickens. We have dealt with predators, new chicks hatching, and even a surprise hatching that no body would have ever imagined was possible.... at least not us!!!

Check out the video below to learn more about what's been going on in our homestead we call "The Serene Forest". You can also head over to our blog to see our journey as it comes by CLICKING HERE

In this video, I discuss a brief history about our chicken flock after we were flooded by Hurricane Ian. Prior to Ian, we had a flock of several chickens.... I think 7 total??? that we had to rehome since our property was flooded.

Since then, we adopted 8 bantam chickens. 7 hens and 1 rooster. These bantams were (I believe) Black Breasted Red Old English Game Bantams. I could be wrong. The previous owners did not provide any insight on the exact breed.

We had been allowing these bantams to free range more so than our previous flock. The bantams had been fun to let free range because they can fly better than other chickens. It was fun to see them get up into our live oaks and other low growing trees. They did a decent job of pest management in our food forest. But they also didn't really cause too much havoc with scratching since their legs are smaller than most other chicken breeds.

Later on, we bough 5 Red Sex Link Chickens from a friend at church. These Red Sex Links were laying much better than our Bantams and we did a video of how we incorporated them into the Bantam flock. You can see that video in this same forum or by CLICKING HERE

We did notice that when free ranging our expanding flock, that the Red Sex Links liked to separate themselves from the Bantam flock. I am not sure if the rooster was to blame or just the natural pecking order among the flock.

The Red Sex Links also were much better scratchers. Not only were they better scratchers... but it was almost like they taught the bantams to be much better scratchers!! We had to figure out a way to protect our important food forest trees. You can see what we did to prevent any unwanted scratching around our prized plants by CLICKING HERE

Eventually, a few Bantam hens became broody. A few were making nests outside of the coup and not coming back at night. Eventually these were taken by racoons. Or at least we believe they were taken by racoons. Hawks could also be to blame. Our neighbor had spotted a hawk's nest on their property around the same time.

One Bantam hen had become broody in the coup and was actually sitting on Red Sex Link eggs. After several weeks, we had 4 chicks hatch from that nest and the hen became a very good mother to these new chicks. I assumed that the remaining 3 eggs had not been laid near the same time frame as the hatched eggs. Therefore, without the hen sitting on the nest, these eggs would never hatch. So, I removed these eggs. I did what I normally do with bad eggs. That is to put them in our compost.

I have learned this may not be the best idea. Apparently our compost bin was at a great temperature for another egg to hatch. One evening we heard chirping coming from a compost bin. Another chick had hatched inside. Crazy!!!

I attempted to put the new hick by the other chicks and mama hen. That did not go so well. She immediately charged the new chick and pecked at it. It was almost as if she was defending her chicks from it. Shortly after, the other chickens became very interested. But not in a good way. It was as if they wanted a meal after this compost birthed chick.

So I removed the compost chick from the run and brought it inside. We attempted to make a suitable space for it. My intent was to try and introduce this chick to the mama hen at night hoping it would accept it with the rest of her chicks in the morning. Unfortunately, the chick did not survive the night.

We have definitely learned a lot from this experience. I hope you have too.

If you have any experience with new chicks, left over eggs, or introducing chicks into your flock.... keep the conversation going by commenting below!