Life Cycles continued...

We've had a total of 9 chicks hatch (two died) and many of our butterflies have emerged as well.

The two chicks that died happened to hatch under a hen that wasn't broody-just sitting there laying her daily egg.  When the chick came out, she killed it and tried to push it out of the nest.  I hate it when that happens.  We try to avoid killings by going out to the coop every few hours.  One of these days we will set up a solitary confinement area where a hen can set to her heart's content without other hens getting in her way. 

Since we can't tell who the biological parents are, we call them all "barny" variety.  We have two austra-likes and five buff orp-somethings.  We have at least ten more eggs, maybe more!