They hatched! Saturday night I went out to check on the broody hen brooding in the rabbit hutch and discovered 3 chicks with two more on the way out. In the end 5 of the 10 eggs hatched. 3 others died while hatching - I have no idea why... inexperienced mother, perhaps - they looked kind of squished... And two eggs had nothing going on. There are 4 pure bred Buff Orpington and one little half breed which looks like it will be white, although it has a wee grey spot on the top of its head. 
Here you can see all 5 of them. You can even see the wee grey spot. Sunday I moved them into the chicken tractor with the other mom (she only hatched one who I think is a rooster). So I have 6 chicks being raised by 2 hens who seem to be getting along okay and the chicks are intermingling. Hopefully I will get at least 3 hens out of this batch. I also want to find some bands and band the legs of these two hens so I know who it was that was successfully broody.
I'm pretty pleased to have some naturally hatched and raised chicks. Hopefully I can breed for that as time goes on. What can I say? Yay for Buff Orpingtons! What a great breed; I don't know why everyone doesn't have some! I'm looking forward to sharing these with my young nephew heading this way!
1 comment:
Yay, he's going to love them!!! I love little chicks, they're so cute! I need to get directions to your house at some point.
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