Baby Chick

I was so hoping that the baby chicks would hatch before Addie left, which would have been a couple of days early, but they didn’t. They left Friday morning and Sunday, this baby hatched. 

The mama, which may not be the biological mama, but she’s the one sitting on the nest, is so nice! She’s never tried to peck me and that little bantam, who’s trying to sit on eggs again, wants to kill me!

The babies from the last hatch are growing up quickly.

Not sure if you can tell but there are two that are darker and two that are lighter There’s only one rooster, a Dominique, but two of the babies had a Dominique mom and two had the black Australorp mom. 

These four are almost too big to get through the fence. From the minute I let them out in the morning, til right at dusk, they hang out under the big fig tree. I walk by there and I hear them chirping away. It always reminds me of little girls having a “clubhouse” in some corner somewhere. I’m kinda surprised that as much as they run all over the place and stay outside the fence, away from the protection of their moms, nothing has happened to any of them.

The black chicken is sitting on 5 more eggs. I haven’t candled any of them but I think there’s only one more that may hatch. I can hear “pipping” from one egg. Two of them are bantam eggs and I don’t think they’ll ever hatch with the big rooster being their dad . . probably too much baby chicken for the size of those eggs. From now on, I won’t let the chicks sit on the bantam eggs. Heck . . for a while, I won’t let them sit on any eggs. I keep taking the eggs out from under the bantam and she keeps finding more to sit on.  

I do not need more chickens! Right now, I have:

• 1 Australorp
• 1 Dominique rooster
• 4 Dominique hens
• 4 Adolescent chicks
• 8 Buckeye hens
• 1 Bantam hen
• the one baby that just hatched.

That’s 20. With 13 full size hens, how many eggs do you think I’m getting every day? Guess!

Two . . or three on a good day. I’m hoping it’s the heat .  and not just lazy chickens!