Today we’ll talk about Miss Fraggle, the long-awaited miracle is finally here !! 🙂

A while back I decided to make portraits of the nice chickens that I spend time with, a series of articles in tribute to all of these lovely and friendly animals that cheer up my everyday life 🙂

Hooray to my little chickens !

My last chicken portrait (will soon be translated !) told the incredible story of Diabolo, a few days old baby orpington bantam chick. He would’ve died if I hadn’t been in the right place at the right moment …

Let’s talk about a slightly bigger subject : a blue brahma hen names Fraggle 🙂

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The story of a blue brahma hen named Fraggle

Miss Fraggle’s story starts in August 2014 when her egg hatches somewhere in the Cher area (centre of France)…But we met recently !! 🙂

In March 2016, we cross paths accidentally and I am able to buy Fraggle ! I had left to buy a few young black brahma chickens, possible descendants of Miss Fraggle or her sister, another blue brahma hen. Some of these youngsters came from our original brahma bloodline.

It was a great way to get back some chickens with this precious pedigree, the same genetics as our very first brahmas (Boule and Splash). The very same chickens that made us love these great animals and enabled us to start this blog. 🙂

In other words, a very important story !!

Fraggle’s genetics

In addition to the black pullets I brought back to Brahmaland, I was also able to bring back Fraggle, daughter of our beloved and missed first brahmas, breeders of 100% blue chicks :

• BOULE, adorable black brahma hen, excellent breeder
• SPLASH, our very first baby chick who became a magnificent splash rooster 🙂

It’s a special story between ma and Fraggle !! At last, I had the opportunity to own one of Splash’s daughters !

Fraggle the delicate hen

After spending some time in a quarantine dedicated space, we introduced Fraggle in a blue brahma family. They didn’t get along very well and she was absolutely unproductive. Fraggle had no trouble laying eggs, no problem there. She had no trouble mating with the rooster but the eggs were desperately unfertilized, no embryos ever…We cut a few feathers on our hen, did some new tests, nothing….How strange.

We decided to present Fraggle to a new family. New rooster, new friends and same result : eggs with no embryos. What a shame, I was so happy to have this new hen and I couldn’t wait to see her chicks…I was so sad.

One last try in another chicken run called ‘the splash 2‘ with a young rooster called Assay, we were already at the beginning of summer. Still no sign of anything in the eggs even though she was a very good laying hen. The only good sign is that Fraggle seems to get along with the others this time, she’s always participating in the family’s activities.:-)

When I went to talk to my hen to ask her to lay fertilized eggs this time, she told me : be patient !!

So, I waited…and she was right ! The fertilized eggs all came at the same time and I have never had any other fertility problems with this special hen !

Until…March this year. Her beloved Assay became sick and the second rooster (Extra) tried his best to impress Miss Fraggle but it was useless. Back to square one…Assay left us in April and took with him all my hopes and dreams about future baby chicks !

Every week, I keep putting Fraggle’s eggs in the incubator, comes the candling moment but they’re always empty…Some would say : Why keep this chicken if she has so many fertility issues ? Simply because I chose her and she’s not infertile, just very delicate. We just have to find the right living conditions for Fraggle.

A while ago I went to talk to Fraggle to try and find a way to make it work with Extra, a great rooster who pays attention to his hens’ needs, food…I got an answer from her : at the end of the month (we were in August). Why not ? Let’s continue incubating eggs and we’ll find out.

The miracle was finally here !!

Last night I candled some eggs that I had been testing for their fertility rate. Fraggle 23 (empty), Fraggle 25 (empty)…I leave the others eggs aside, as usual. I was going to add Fraggle 27 to the others when suddenly…there’s something inside !! 🙂

I was so surprised that I checked twice just to be sure that I had seen an embryo and checked again that the egg belonged to Fraggle ! I just couldn’t believe it ! A future baby chick ! How can a hen give me that information so precisely ! I had almost forgotten that i had another egg left to candle, Fraggle 29, also good ! Second chick-to-be !!

I’m going to take great care of these eggs, they’re staying in the house ! 🙂 See you in 20 days … !!

I’m really happy to have trusted my hen that way, thank you Fraggle for this wonderful gift 🙂

Video of Fraggle and her family :

Fraggle’s descent

Very few chicks last year (with Assay the rooster) because the first ones came in late summer and couldn’t be included in the vaccination protocols. Only one hen survived, splash brahma named Roxy, against all the germs, viruses and other pathogens. This beautiful hen is now one of the breeders at my friend Alexandra’s place 🙂 (check out her website : Les plumes d’Alex)

One egg saved amongst all the others broken and squashed in the coops which became a nice blue chick, Oak. Probably a baby rooster.

And soon we’ll discover the first baby chicks of Fraggle and Extra !! To be continued…!!

If you are interested in buying Miss Fraggle‘s eggs or any other fertilized eggs from our wonderful hens, please contact us using the form below. Simply type your name, email and message and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible ! 🙂

 

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We’ll be back soon with another Chicken Family portrait !

For all questions or informations, please use this form :