The new peeps have arrived, and they are many. Ten, by the last count tonight, but I am worried about two very dimunitive yellow ones. One was out on the porch of the little henhouse, exposed, still wet from the shell. I suspect a certain brown Ameracauna named Rosemary, not far removed from pullet-hood herself. I got it back in under it's mamas, but I am not so sure it will survive the night. Another was very tiny, and though dried off, it was having trouble keeping up with it's day older brothers and sisters. The three mamas, Flicka, Silka and Rosewitha, are all clucking and talking to the babies, and moving as a unit. It got up to 85 degrees today, but tonight the temp fell quickly, and we are heading for the thirties in the coming week. I entreated Keith to help me connect the heat lamp that has been hanging in the little henhouse unused all summer and despite much grumbling, we got it connected and operational. There are still four unhatched eggs, which I am hoping at this point stay unhatched.
If you look closely, you can see one yellow chick in front of Rosewitha, and one black chick peering out from under her skirts.
So far I have seen a gray chick, two black chicks, and the rest are yellow variations. I am hoping most make it through the next few weeks. Despite the fact they have three mamas, there are four other June hatch chicks and a rooster Ratchett, in and out of the little henhouse all day long.
Their waterer is full of feed in the foreground, so I swept the bedding out after I took this picture, cleaned the waterer AGAIN, and refilled it. Most of them have been shown how to drink by their mamas, who drink out of the bigger waterer up on a brick. Chicks can survive a whole day without food or water, it's the reason they can be shipped at one day old, since they are subsisting on the yolk still inside them.
I am learning a lot about poultry reading your blog. Keep up the good work. Mary G.
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