Today is the day that the chicks arrive! It started this morning with a frantic call from the feed store: ‘Come and pick up your chicks! They’re here!’. Actually not so frantic but the store was filled with the ‘peep peep peep’ of baby chicks so they wanted to get them out of there as soon as they can. Miss Piggie wondered what was in the box and the chicks were just happy to get out of the box after their shoulder to shoulder ride from the hatchery. The other animals are curious too but I haven’t let the goats too close to them yet. For now they’ll stay inside the playpen and then they’ll take over the building. Next job, build a little fence or chick tractor to keep them contained and safe.

We’ve had an interesting development in the chick rearing department this season.  There is a nest box near the house that has been occupied by two hens for the past several weeks.  They had been continually jostling for space and there were never any times that they were both off the nest.   That meant we never had a chance to check what might be going on:  How many eggs were they sitting on?  Chicken or duck or both?  Any peeping to be heard from inside any eggs?  A hatching would be imminent?

Late last week we had the answer when one, then another chick made their debut.  The big question was, who would take care of them.  Well, it turns out both. We’re not sure if we have little Heathers or Heaths but for now they definitely have two Mommies taking care of them.   BTW, hats off to Leslea Newman who wrote the book Heather has two Mommies way back in 1989.

We thought our Barred Rock Hen was a bad mother when she abandoned her first clutch of 10 when they were pretty small.  It turns out she was back to work on her second nest.  It’s in the same spot as the previous nest right next to the house and they should be hatching within the next week.   The plan will be to scoop her and the eggs up one night before they hatch.   Her new home will be a dog crate inside the coop so she’ll have her own private quarters within the coop.

In the meantime, she stays on the nest 24/7 and only  gets off of it once every couple of days to get some food and water.    When that happens, she lets out some very distinctive clucking:  ”I’m off the nest, can’t leave the eggs very long but I need food and water and I need it NOW!”.  That’s my cue to run outside and make sure there is some food put out so she doesn’t have to jump over the fence to get back into the chicken yard.   I usually make an effort to give her some treats and extra rations too so she goes back to the nest full until the next time.

Luckily, the chicks from her first clutch have grown like weeds and are getting along fine.   At this point they are almost as big as some of the smaller hens.   I’m glad they made it this far, as they seemed too small to be on the own without Mom to protect them and show them food.    We’re looking forward to the new chicks and of course more of those big beautiful brown eggs!