Finally, our two broody hens have hatched out some chicks. It has been an incredibly long time since they both decided to brood. There were several false starts that ended in omelets for the piglets. We didn't invite them to dine, they just helped themselves. But our two girls were not to be deterred. What should normally take about three weeks, took almost two months. And how many chicks did we end up with? Three. Yep. Just three.
There were five eggs left in Penguin's nest. A few of them had been laid very recently and she had just added them to the clutch. Since I didn't know which were which and she has abandoned the nest (meaning that she will not wait to hatch any more babies in this clutch), I broke open the eggs. Sadly, there were two chicks that looked to be in their second week of growth - not big enough to hatch out and live. The must've been laid later than the other two that hatched. I don't blame her for giving up. She had been setting for a very long time.
Because we have only had two roosters available to all of the hens, we know that these babies have at least 1/4 barred rock in them. It looks like the one that Jasmine has hatched out may end up looking like a barred rock. It is black with a little yellow spot on its head. The two that Penguin hatched are a grey color with the yellow spot. They may have gotten less barred rock in them. We never know until they feather out completely what they will end up like, but it's a good guess that they will have some of those black and white traits of their fathers.
The great thing about these two finishing up on their nests is that I don't have to question whether or not an egg is fresh. We can collect all of the eggs every morning from now on.
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UPDATE:
We mysteriously lost the single chick that Jasmine hatched out. She has since returned to her clutch of eggs. I'm really hoping that she hatches at least one more baby so that she can feel accomplished in her job.
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