Friday, January 9, 2009

Babies everywhere!

I've been busy with babies lately. My daughter had her friend sleep over the other night, and her friend's brother came to play for the morning too. As chance would have it, on the same day our baby chicks hatched!!

What baby chicks?

One of my hens went broody a few weeks ago, so I purchased eight fertile eggs from a breeder in the area. Enough to fit underneath a bantam comfortably. The new chicks are standard size Gold-Lace Wyandottes. Something different and much bigger than my bantams will be. Here we are all having a sticky-beak at the new arrivals.




I wonder if mummy chook despised the intrusion, but it's not every day we got to witness new babies coming into the world.




The first one we saw emerge from underneath.




Then there were two!!




Five little fluffy bundles to date. I have taken them away from poor mum, as we have mice or rats tunnelling underneath the coop at night. It's not uncommon for babies to be taken by rodents, so I didn't want to take the chance. Our dedicated pekin is still sitting on the three remaining eggs though, and I've noticed one has already started pipping.




What is the famous saying though...don't count your chickens before they hatch?

Here are some more random shots of our new fluffy babies.







I love baby chickens!!

9 comments:

  1. I love it when they are hatching too, they really are the cutest wee things!

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  2. They are unbelievably cute, how exciting for you. I have chick envy!

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  3. I'm thoroughly envious, wishing I had the space to do chooks and chickens like you.
    They are cute.
    Cheers

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  4. Oh wow I too wish we could have baby chicks.
    They are very cute.

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  5. very cool, i hope you can combat the rodant problem we have one here as well but not in the coop in our house Grrrr i hate mice & rats

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  6. Aww, how cute. Baby chicks are just the best.

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  7. I have just found your blog, through Down To Earth. I have been reading a bit and have enjoyed, what I have read.

    Suzen

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  8. Chris how are your babies going? I bet they are huge now!
    Emily

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  9. Thanks so much everyone for your comments. I realise I've been remiss in replying. Kept telling myself to thank everyone and time whisked me away with the fairies again.

    So here I am to thank everyone for your lovely comments.

    Emily, I can't believe how fast they are all growing now. They are only 5 weeks and already bigger than when my bantam orpingtons were 6 weeks.

    These are my first large breed and they are beautiful. I will do an update as soon as the weather clears. They're inside at the moment but more on that later.

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