warp & woof

Thursday, August 7, 2008

We should write a counting book

Ten chicks! Our last egg under the lights hatched out Wednesday morning at breakfast. So that makes seven in with Luna, and 3 from the 'bator. Crazy hatch rate -- far surpassing anything I'd expected. Now we just have to see who's a roo! We're hoping to keep as many of the hens as we can. For now these babies are in the incubator which is now a very tiny brooder, but I have hopes to introduce them to Luna and have her take them on. We'll see how it goes.

First up, this is a pic of bator baby #2 (won't it be lovely when they have names?) standing alone instead of being snuggled. Now, onto our last egg, which was from Tinkerbelle:

I love the way this chick looks. Reminds me of Tinkerbelle herself (which you can go back to May 2007 to see yourself) but definitely has some wyandotte features as well. Should be interesting to see how the mixes develop, and how the BLRWs develop out -- most of the ones we have are the light "splash" version, but there are some beautiful dark versions as well.

hen and chicks

Still in the tub at night, the girls and their mama enjoy days out on the front lawn in the chicken tractor. Since they're exposed to the elements, they're feathering out faster than other chicks kept under a lamp. See their pretty wings?

Tinkerbelle's chick is at the bottom right, and the rest are wyandottes. The light ones are BLRWs, and I'm fairly sure the darker ones are the gold and blue laced cross, but will have to see them with their adult feathers to be sure. I'm not sure what Luna's feeding the chick here. I think I tossed in some banana, and tho the chicks have gotten the concept and rush over to whatever tasty treat I put in their pen, Luna still rips little bits off and drops it on the ground for them. Making almost the same noise Peepers makes when he finds a snack as they meander around the yard.

Incubator baby #2

Sunday night, someone noticed that one of the eggs under the light was peeping. Monday morning, I awoke to Dante pounding on my back shouting "the egg is hatching, c'mon, you're going to miss it!" Sure enough, we caught that video, and took the pics as the chick emerged.

Well, Monday night, Luke noticed that another egg was peeping, and sure enough, all day Tuesday the little chick worked a big hole in the egg instead of just the little pip and neat circle around the egg. But it finally got around the shell and made it out around midnight.