Last night, IJ celebrated his 10th birthday with a small sleepover. He had four friends stay over after having a bunch more here for the afternoon. One of their activities was chicken chasing. I asked them to stay out of the chicken yard because I didn't want my broody hens disturbed. I had no idea that the chicks were actually hatching!
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| Aren't fluffy chicks the BEST? |
I candled the eggs last night to see if I had any obvious duds. One eggs was so opaque, I couldn't find an air space no matter what direction I turned the egg. I held it up to my ear to listen for the rotten egg splash, but instead I heard a tap-tap-tap. I love that sound. I came back in the house to tell the kids and M about it, but M didn't believe that I could hear tapping. He said I made it all up.
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| This one is still slightly wet-not cute yet! |
This afternoon, I finally convinced him to come out and see for himself. When I reached under the hens (there are three brooding in the same nest box), I heard the peeping of a new chick! I pulled it out (it was the little black one above) and I heard more peeping! I had to reach even further behind the three hens to get that fluffy one in the first picture.
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| The Mamas (one is facing backwards) |
Those chicks totally caught us by surprise. It takes only 21 days for a chick to hatch, so I guess those eggs were a lot older than I had thought. Most of the eggs were placed on May 7th, but I knew some were older. I just didn't think they were that old! We have no chick food and had to quickly throw a brooder together so the chicks wouldn't get squished under their three mamas. What a fun surprise!
