I walked into the hen house tonight, and two fluffy yellow heads and one watchful hen greeted me.
When I returned with a camera, one chick had buried itself under its mama. The other one was cautious, but curious.She kept peeking out from under her mama's wing.
Mama Hen will stay on her nest for another day or so, until she's sure there are no more chicks to hatch. After hatching, chicks can survive 72 hours without food and water. This allows Mama Hen to stay on her nest and complete the hatch.
Inside the house, I have another distraction--11 hot chicks in the bathroom.
I had placed eggs in the incubator, and the chicks began hatching on Tuesday morning. In a few days, I'll repace the newspaper with cedar shavings and soon, they'll go to the chick house.
But for this weekend, I will be taking a break from planting the garden, from cleaning the horse barn, from weeding the flowerbed, from mowing the pastures, to watch the chicks.
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what better excuse for not working is there than watching a bunch of baby chicks....
ReplyDeleteWe got 26 new Barred Rocks in February and spent a month making sure they were warm enough until spring sprang here! I hope to hatch our own here someday but so far we haven't found a rooster we get along with yet!
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