We now have Icelandic chickens from three lines of imports from Iceland. Isi and Lukka are still going strong, but I felt the need to add some new blood. We now have nine chicks, two that are 10 weeks old and seven that are 8 weeks old. Those are from the two most recent imports. The colors are nice and there are chicks with straight combs and others with a funky version of a pea comb, common in this breed. Unfortunately, it looks like at least half of the chicks, if not more, are cockerels.
Here’s little video I took of the nine chicks this morning. They freak out when I go in the run that they share with four of my older hens who no longer lay eggs. The old girls tolerate the babies well.
In addition to the juvenile Icelandics, Lukka and one of her daughter’s are both hatching eggs today and tomorrow. These chicks from my original line from Sigrid. My plan for the foreseeable future is to keep the two lines separate.
Here is Lukka with her first two chicks. She still has three eggs that haven’t hatched. I expect to see chicks tomorrow.
Until then, here are the first two. So sweet. Lukka trusts me with her babies. She has been broody so much and she expects that I am going to mess with her eggs and chicks. She growls a little at me but doesn’t peck.
Lukka’s daughter DeeDee however, drew blood on me today. Her hatch is complete. She’s a first time broody so I gave some of her eggs to Lukka. First timers can be a little ditzy. Yesterday I found her off the nest, one empty egg-shell in the nest box and one unhatched, cold egg. I couldn’t find the baby chick that had obviously hatched. I finally found it alive, buried under the shavings. I gave it to Lukka who immediately started taking care of it. I also slipped the cold egg under Lukka in hopes it would still hatch. Later I found DeeDee back in her nest box, digging in the shavings looking for her egg/chick. I gave her the chick which was now dry , fluffy and active. She didn’t immediately take to it but within a few minutes she was over the moon in love with that baby.
I was worried about the chicks falling out of the nest boxes so I stapled wire across the fronts. Here are Lukka and her daughter DeeDee in their nest boxes last night.
This morning I found Lukka with two eggs almost completely hatched. I took one of them and gave it back to DeeDee who finished it hatching and started taking good care of it. Here she is with the baby she buried in shavings yesterday.
Here are her two babies.
We have three adult Icelandics, nine juveniles, and hopefully seven babies. That number will go down as we sort through the cockerels to decide which will be kept for breeding. The extras will join Farmer Fred’s flock.
We love our Icelandic chickens at the Buck ‘n Run Ranch! Warning: This officially ends the cute chick pictures portion of this post.
I hate to do it, but I just have to share this picture of Transylvanian Naked Neck chicken, Judge Judy. At first I thought she was in the throes of death, but she was just resting.