Mr. C is a young Araucana (Americana) rooster that came to us from Shari and Dave Groendyk at Texas Corners, a suburban area west of Kalamazoo.
Shari ordered 8 "Easter Egg" pullets (baby female chickens) online. Araucana chickens (or Americana as some people call them because they were bred in this country instead of coming directly from South America) lay eggs that are green, pink or ivory instead of plain brown or plain white.
At four months old one of Shari's pullets started crowing in the morning - her little girl chicken turned out to be a little boy chicken. The residents of Texas Corners like hens, but roosters are too noisy. Looking for a home for "Calliope" she renamed him "Mr. C" and brought him to Wild Rose Meadows.
When Mr. C arrived, he wanted to explore the barn so we let him out with the other chickens. They did not accept him into the flock.
Here is the way Mr. C's first week went....
- 1st night: Mr. C. hid under a pile of lumber in the far back corner of the barn where the older hens and roosters couldn't get him. We don't think he slept much the first night.
- 2nd night: We took Mr. C into protective custody in an unused horse stall with a Barred Rock hen for company. He roosted up in the corner of the stall where she couldn't get hm. We don't think he slept much the second night either.
- 3rd night: Mr. C roosted on top of a nesting box along with the hen, just out of reach of her sharp beak.
- 4th night: Mr. C roosted comfortably on top of the nesting box right next to the hen.
- 5th night: Mr. C roosted comfortably on top of the nesting box right next to the hen.
- 6th night: We opened the stall door. The hen went out. Mr. C roosted on top of the nesting box by himself.
- 7th night: Mr. C. went out into the barn and roosted comfortably with the other chickens, like he had been there forever.
A whole bunch of kids are looking forward to baby chicks three weeks from now, so we filled up the incubator today with 36 eggs. Chicken eggs require 21 days to hatch.
Isn't it amazing that a chicken can produce a brand new egg in a day, and then sit on it for just 21 days to hatch a baby chick?
The incubator is constructed of styrofoam.The eggs can be seen through the windows in the top of the incubator.
There is a tray in the bottom into of the incubator into which we pour a little water to maintain humidity.The lid has a heat coil, a thermostat to turn the heat coil on and off, maintaining the required temperature of 99.5 degrees, and a fan to spread the warm air evenly across the eggs.
In the bottom of the incubator above the water is a screen. On the screen sits an electric egg turner that turns the eggs every fouir hours. The automatic egg turner is not required, but the eggs do need to be turned three times per day, so the egg turner is a nice feature.
After 18 days we will remove the egg turner and lay the eggs on their sides on top of the screen for the last 3 days until they hatch.
If all goes well. 21 days from now we will have a whole bunch of baby chicks for the kids to see and touch.
We lost Melvin recently. He was an extraordinary cat. We can't let his passing go without a few words about his character. Melvin arrived 5 years ago when his mother, Georgia, showed up pregnant. We found homes for most of her kittens before she was neutered but Melvin stayed.
Melvin was always an adventurous cat. He would go outside during the day and come into the back porch at night to enjoy some treats and sleep with the other cats. On New Year's Eve when Melvin was 6 months old, he showed up in the evening with a broken leg. When we had him checked out, it turned out he had broken his leg in two places - up high near the hip and low near the ankle. Although the injury was serioius, we decided to work with him instead of putting him down.
Five months we kept Melvin in the porch and did a physical therapy routine on his leg. That sounds like a lot of work, but we aren't quite as crazy as it sounds. Physical therapy simply consisted of petting Melvin several times a day and gently exercising his leg to keep it from getting stiff.
By the time the weather warmed up in May, Melvin's leg had healed enough that we let him go back outside. He was so excited he acted like a little kitten, running around chasing butterflies. Then he climbed a fence post next to the cow water tanks while we were filling them. Suddenly he saw something that caught his fancy and jumped 5 feet to the ground. I still remember shouting at him, "Melvin, no!!!" But it was too late. He landed on his newly healed leg and injured it again. Fortunately, this time it only took a month in the porch to mend.
For five years we enjoyed Melvin. He was very affectionate without being a pest. He was always right there at our feet, rubbing against our legs, hoping for a hand on his head.
Melvin developed an infection that started when a thorn pierced his eye. The fluid inside his eye became infected, and then the eye socket itself became infected. The veterinarian said that although he was purring, he must certainly be in a tremendous amount of pain. She said treatment would require costly surgery, a long time on antibiotics, and his quality of life would be uncertain. We made the difficult decision to put him down.
It's amazing that although we have 29 other rescued cats we love, we especially feel the loss of Melvin. What a rich contribution he made to our lives for the past 5 years! Maybe part the loss is that he was our last kitten. We neuter all of our cats, so we only have kittens when a pregnant mother cat chooses our farm to call home. It's been several years since we have had kittens.
When the Spectrum Security officers took the kitten into one of offices at the hospital to find him a home, a staff member told them we had a farm and might be willing to take him in. We took one look and couldn't say no. Of course we named him Parker, since he was found in the parking ramp.A day after we brought him home we had to take Parker to the vet for surgery on his feet. Parker had burned the pads of his feet riding on the hot exhaust pipe. That was a $250 expense we had not anticipated. A couple months later we took Parker back to the vet to be neutered, like all of the cats that find homes at Wild Rose Meadows. Alays keep in mind there is no such thing as a "free kitten!"
Parker turned out to be a really good find. He is one of our favorite cats. We are happy that Parker hitched a ride to our house.
Tales From The Barn
These are true stories about Wild Rose Meadows, a family farm at Otsego, Michigan. The authors of Hoof Prints are Dave and Mary Van Antwerp, farm owners.
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