Our second incubator hatch went better than the first! We ended up with 7 chicks and 2 guinea keets. While still not phenomenal, we are happy with it. We think we know part of what we did wrong with the incubator last time, but in the end it turned out that many of the eggs simply weren’t fertile. We only picked eggs from the hens we thought were some of our rooster Charlie’s “favorites”, but I guess that’s still no guarantee! Here are the new little ones:
It seems kind of apparent to me that some of these chicks did have the same Mama, though some breeds do look alike when they’re young and then they change later, so we’ll see.
Meanwhile, the older chicks, who are now over 6 weeks old, are on their own! One day Mama Bella really seemed to want out of the enclosure, so we decided to let her free range (we weren’t ready to let the young ones out yet). Once she left, she never looked back! She’s been out and about all the time and has left her adopted brood to their own devices!
We just started letting them out a bit; so far they seem to stick pretty close to the coop and I hope that continues!
They stick together, and mostly avoid the older birds but everyone seems to be doing OK at getting along so far. They have no trouble flying up to the highest roosting bars, but their cage is still in the coop as a place where they can feel safe, and they are still sleeping in there. There’s a lot of jostling for the prime spots on the roosting bars at night and we think they are choosing to avoid all that drama for now!
I have one last photo to share on the subject of “interesting things seen around the farm”. This crazy “volunteer” tomato plant popped up between our front steps.
It’s no surprise it’s there, since the hens often got tomatoes to eat on the front step last summer, but we never expected it to get so big. It has outgrown anything down in our garden! We don’t imagine it will provide us with tomatoes though, the girls will certainly get to them first!
Thanks to our friends The LLB Gang for hosting the Nature Friday blog hop. Please visit them and other blogs through the links below!
Can you handle the baby chicks? I would want to cuddle them. They are so cute! Congratulations!!
They are always so shy, but yes, we can handle them. They don’t enjoy the cuddling as much as we do though!!
They grow up so fast, too cute.
What cute lil’ chicks! I’ll look forward to seeing them grow!
I had to grin about Mama Bella, making her little ones “latch-key-chicks” when she left. I hope they continue to stay safe and play nice too! :-)!!
It really was funny with Bella! Once she left those kids, there was no looking back! LOL
Cute little chicks!
Cute little chicks 🙂
Congrats on the new additions to the flock!
Thank you!!
Absolutely love your volunteer plant and those adorably cute chicks and keets. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the number of (actually) quite tasty cherry tomatoes from my own volunteer. Now I hope the other tomato will do the same though I’d happily plant another one like it next year. So tasty! Have a great weekend.
I just saw a photo of some of your volunteer tomatoes today – they were gorgeous! This plant has tons of blossoms but I haven’t seen any tomatoes yet. Hubby says the birds are eating them before I get to see them (which is why they are banned from our vegetable garden – LOL).
Those little ones are so cute and that’s one big mater bush!
Pretty soon we won’t be able to get off the porch without stepping on it! LOL
Awwwww, they’re all so cute!! And the older group are growing so fast!! Mama Bella did a great job raising them, but now they need to “spread their wings”.
It’s amazing how quickly they’ve just blended in with the rest of the flock. Usually we don’t put them together when they are so young, but they’re doing great!
we love them when they are teenagers.. they act like people LOL
I’m not sure if that’s good or bad – LOL!
We saw on FB that you had several new chicks. They are so cute and we hope they all grow up to be big birds one day. I’m sure every batch you try to hatch will get better since you are learning along the way.
It’s definitely a learning process, with something new learned every time we do it!
The chicks and keets are so adorable and it looks like Mama Bella wants no part of being a mama anytime soon☺
I think she’s off duty until next spring – which is fine with us, we’re done for now too! 🙂
What fun to see al the new chicks and keets. And they sure looked a lot bigger when they got to go out to explore. Mama Bella, um…she is too funny!
Sorry, I have been rather awol in my visits of late…
Mama Bella did her time and then she was DONE! LOL.
No worries, we all get busy!