Miss Izzie and Her Babies

Izzie teaches her 5 day old chicks to eat scrambled eggs-their first treat. I thought I chopped them up small enough, but she breaks them into smaller pieces with her beak and sprinkles them on the ground. Some things only a mother can do.

Izzie's chicks were born one week after Phoebe's. She hatched six of seven eggs-five Black Copper Marans and one Olive Egger (EExMarans). We should have a multi-colored basket of eggs in about six months. Izzie and her babies live in the pen next to BFF Phoebe and her brood.

I was out in the yard when they were two days old when I heard a chick peeping in distress. Seems the hens had been scratching along the boards between the pens and dug a tunnel big enough for two of Phoebes chicks to join the two-day olds, and one of Izzie's newborns was chirping her little head off as she found herself in the midst of the "big kids". Izzie was very distressed, but Phoebe just eyed the baby with amusement as if to say, "hey, it's not my kid".

The families were reunited and the tunnel filled in. We buried the wire around the perimeter of the pens to keep out predators, but not between the pens; forgetting that the chickens are pretty good diggers themselves.

Miss Phoebe and Her Babies

Phoebe's chicks hatched this past weekend. I think she looks pretty good considering she has been sitting for five weeks, only leaving the nest once a day for a few minutes to eat, drink and poo. It only takes 21 days for a chick to develop and hatch, but she sat on a golf ball for 2 weeks while we waited for shipped eggs to arrive. I got more Welsummers since the last hatch gave us all girls, and some Black Copper Marans that lay the chocolate colored egg. I put eight of these under our broody plus two of her sisters eggs (she stops laying after full broodiness kicks in) and set the rest in the incubator. She hatched seven and only four in the bator hatched. Her chicks were more active and dried off more quickly. I kept the bator hatched chicks in an inside brooder until they perked up and dried off, then put them under Phoebe's wing. She adopted them immediately after giving me a curious look.

Above is a group shot of Mama and all eleven chicks. They are under her body and wings to stay warm.

She has been busy teaching them to scratch for bugs.

Such a good mama!