Sunday, November 14, 2010

10 Chickens arrive

After 3 weeks of diligent sitting ans nesting, our mumma hen hatched herself a clutch of cute little chickens. It was so exciting. Over three days we watched 12 chickens break out of their shells and poke their little heads out from under mumma. Such a delightful sight.
Josh tried to rescue one baby that was having trouble getting out, but as nature goes these things just can't really be helped...it lived for a day but was just too weak to go on. Sad but we know it would happen. The first chicken to hatch also died when it wasn't quite out of it's shell, and one more drowned in the water. So in the end we now have 9 beautiful chickens.
Charlie wasn't sure what to make of them at first, but soon learned to be very gentle with the little critters. He and Biff follow them around the paddock and when they get too intense mumma hen will give them a peck to politely ask them to be a bit more careful with her babies. Now there is no sweeter sight than to watch an 18 month old and his puppy and a bunch of chicken hanging out together. It sure makes my heart smile.
Eli called his chicken "black eye" and Noah called hi "yellow head" can you guess how these chickens might have gotten their very imaginative names from???
One day we caught all the chickens to get photos of them all, a much harder task than you might imagine, especially with a very inquisitive baby and puppy hanging around.
Noah's mumma hen and her chickies scouting for food.
She's such a great mother, and I am so glad she is too. We love our chickens and our clever chooks and proud rooster.

2 comments:

  1. Such lovely photo's of your growing family little sis.

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  2. oh i just love them so much,you have no idea how blissful it is to watch a mumma hen with her chicks. the simple things in life i guess.

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