It's finally here, or I should say "They are finally here!" A few weeks back we had yet another broody hen who we decided to try hatching out eggs. I was a little worried as this was her first time and if things did not work out I would have to bring any chicks that hatched into the house to care for them. However, I am happy to report that Spice and her new babies are doing wonderful. We lost an egg early on, so our 21 eggs went down to 20, then we had 1 hatch on day 20 that did not survive, 4 hatched on day 21 and another 4 have hatched today on day 22. There are still 11 more to go so we will give it a couple more days.
We do have some idea of what hens these came from but will wait until they are all hatched and can get some good pics of each chick. Hopefully we aren't doomed with the magic number 8 again, Fingers Crossed!
As for Thumper and her chicks, they are doing wonderful. After this photo was taken she gave up on caring for them as they were able to handle their own with the 1st batch of chicks that we hatched out, which are about a month older. It is too cute to watch the sexlink boys bump chests with the older boys and win. Thumper was accepted back into the big flock but still does not roost with them. I figure it will take a little more time. She will definitely be a good choice to use again if we ever decide to hatch out more chicks.
These Easter Eggers are getting huge! The one we know is a male has started to crow, which sounds like a party horn. The jury is still out on who is a male or not. Of all the chicks we have ever had, the females never had their comb change color until it got old enough to start laying, but a lot of these are a slight red tint in their combs. Obviously only time will tell for sure.
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