02 August 2019

New chicks in 2019

A food totals post is due, but I'll get it in for the next one because we have new chickies! 

We have nine new chickies as of today--hatched three days ago.  Cookie sat on eight eggs and hatched six;  Rainbow sat on four and hatched three.  Both mothers have their own little house with a shared bit of the lawn, though as far as we know the chicks haven't mingled yet. 

Rainbow doesn't seem quite as assured about the whole business as Cookie, but so far she's managed to keep her three alive.  Rainbow "helped" Cookie last summer by deciding to go broody during Cookie's last week of sitting and shared the nest with her.  Those three chicks all attached themselves to Cookie and Rainbow didn't get much parenting action.  As I've mentioned previously, Rainbow is a rescue hen from an egg laying farm:  she's five years old and her breed is known for not ever going broody.  Well, she's proved us all wrong, including me;  I thought she couldn't do it but she has.

We won't know for about six weeks who's a boy or girl, but I'm hoping for an even split.  If they're all girls we'll have way too many chickens over winter...

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