Monday, August 13, 2012

Chick update

Well, out of that last batch of eggs we hatched in the incubator, we only got 13 chicks. Presumably the rest of the eggs weren't fertile.


This little one is the most distinctive, and has become our favorite. I sure hope it turns out to be a hen, not a rooster.


Unfortunately one chick somehow broke its leg. It was peeping pitifully. Don mercifully put it out of its misery.



Fortunately everyone else is healthy. It always cracks me up to watch them sleep, piled on each other like puppies.



Meanwhile our setting hen, Smoky, is still diligently setting on her eggs. Technically they're due to hatch this Wednesday or Thursday.


We may give our older chicks to our neighbors, then put the younger chicks along with Smoky and her brood into the coop.


With luck (and depending on how maternal she's feeling), Smoky may even adopt the incubator chicks as her own. We'll see!

5 comments:

  1. Where we live I can't have chickens so I've really enjoyed reading your posts and watching the eggs and chick develop. Thank you for such wonderful explanitaions!

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  2. Good luck! They are a cute little bunch of chicks.

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  3. Just wondering if you feed corn? I have noticed that my roosters are not as fertile and I think it's the corn...most all corn is now GMO. What do you think?

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  4. Thanks for the updates - nice to see the little fluffballs. I also appreciated the photo of the older chickens, how they've grown. You're very generous to give them away.

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  5. I really think that chick most likely had spraddle leg, and it was not broken. A bandaid or piece of tape holding the legs aligned will fix them up in a day or so. Just thought I would throw that out there for future reference.

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