Fluffies

Today is 21 days since we set our clucky hen, since then we have been waiting and waiting. In the mean time we did have a few surprise arrivals. 

                        This and his/her, brother/sister found behind the chook shed in early December.

                                This Mum and chick were found just last week wandering the yard.

This morning I checked on the expectant Mum and nothing, not a thing was happening. I went out for the day and returned home to this .......

Which the became this.....

and then.....

soon followed by.....

and lastly with a bit of chick starter encouragement.....

 

HOW CUTE!!

She is still sitting on a couple of eggs, so still could get more but we are REALLY happy with 5 chicks given our best so far has been 2 chicks. These eggs were from a friend so not sure what they are, some were bantam others full size.I'll have to find out what breeds and then people can have fun guessing breed and gender of the chicks. I know some were silkie eggs.

aus.keeys

Time for bed...

So its dusk and everyone is settling in for the night. To be honest I've not really sat and watched them all go to bed but today decided to sit and watch. Just like people, some went to bed early and others waiting till it was almost dark. 

 Getting ready for bed.

 Bed buddies.

These guys, the babies of the bunch were along with the bantams, were the last to head to bed.

I leave you with this photo, although a little blurry I thought it was worth sharing. 

You can see that even though ginger chick is now just over 4 weeks old and is big enough to fly up onto the perch with its Mum, that Mum still puts her wing around it...very cute :)

aus.keeys

The SURPRISES just keep coming...

So while out in the garden today I heard alot of fussing going on from the chickens....I looked but couldn't see anything of interest so kept doing my thing. 

When heading back into the house, what do I spot wondering around the yard??? 

THIS......

Ummm why is there a Mum and chick walking around my yard?? 

 Seems another bantam had been sitting and is the proud mum of 1 little chick. As much as I loved watching them wonder around the yard, I'm a little worried about other animals taking them so they are now safe in a cadge till older.

Other chicken news of the day....

The four, ten week old black hens have been moved in with the other fully grown hens, we have been mixing them in the past few weeks and keeping an eye on them and decided today was the day. The move went well, they have a few less feathers than they started with but all in all was an easy transition it seems.

The Mum and four week old ginger chick moved into the cadge the black hens had been in, this will give mum a chance to teach it how to get up on the perch and whatever else a Mum teaches a chick to do. In another 6 weeks or so just like the black hens it will be time for it to move into the main flock.

Mum and the two bantam chicks now 2 weeks old moved into the old rabbit cadge Mum and ginger chick just moved out of. Mum was keen on the move to begin with but has settled in well now.

The other bantam is still sitting she is due on the 28th, we can't wait to see what hatches and how many :)

Its been a pretty busy afternoon with chicken house moving, we now have 23chickens with 1 rooster, 4 chicks and 18 hens and fingers crossed a few more by the end of next week!

aus.keeys