I love baby chicks. They are so cute and they’re so fun to watch. Mama hen wasn’t being quite so mean yesterday. I was able to get the empty egg shell (where the baby hatched, set up a watering bottle and put some food in for the baby and mom.
Baby Chick
When they first started sitting on eggs, I marked them with an “X”. I was going to let them each (two moms) have 6 eggs but I quickly lost that battle. The first few eggs were the only ones marked with an “X” and this baby was in a marked egg.
The problem is that one or two eggs will hatch per day and by then, the time Thursday rolls around, the first babies will be wanting to run around outside and mom can’t continue to sit on the next and go out with the babies. I could put the remaining eggs in an incubator but I’m not going to. I’ve thought of taking all the babies from the two hens and giving them to one mama and putting all the remaining eggs under the other mama but trying to get babies from under the other, meaner hen would probably result in my losing a finger or two.
We seem to have about an 80/20 rooster to hen hatch rate. My guess is that this baby is going to be a rooster. The father of all these chicks is a Dominique and when the babies hatch, the boys have a diffuse dot on top of their head and the girls have a tight, round dot. That one looks pretty diffuse. But, on the other hand, males tend to have more yellow and less black on their beaks and this baby has a good bit of black so . . who knows. I only have a few Dominique hens left. Judging from the color the empty egg shell, it was probably a Cuckoo Marans mom. Their beaks seem to be mostly yellow. The bottom line is . . I don’t have a clue most of the time til they start crowing. Then, and only then, I’m pretty sure it’s a rooster!
Carolyn says
That poor hen has a bewildered look….”How in this world did you get in with me?” So cute!
Teresa F. says
The marking on top of baby chick’s head looks like an overhead view of a duck in flight.
Teresa F.
Nelle Coursey says
I had an old friend (and I am referring to age here) and he was a crotchety old man. I was whistling one day and he looked at me and said “A whistling woman and a crowing hen always come to some bad end!” I have never forgotten that but I still whistle for my dogs to come in!! LOL Guess we know what that means!
Judy Laquidara says
It does look like a little duck flying. How cute!
dezertsuz says
It is so sweet looking, whatever it turns out to be. Hopefully, it doesn’t pick up it’s mama’s meannes. =)