The Untimely End

As you can tell from the title of the post there had been some bad news. It is with a heavy heart that I tell you that one of our new chicks has passed. It was the youngest of the brood and we think it was attacked by a bigger bird (maybe a magpie). My granddad found it under one of the trees with injuries and wounds. I can just imagine the horrific struggle that it went through to try and get away, but it just wasn't enough. Even more bad news is that four of the eggs that the other hen was sitting on have been broken. We think this must have happened when the other three hens have wanted to lay their own eggs. So all in all it hasn't been a good week for the Big Chicken House. Here is the last video I made of all six of the chicks together when they ventured outside on to the grass and just enjoying life.

The saga continues......

Just when we thought we had all the chicks we were going to get, another one started cracking so at this moment in time the is a half hatched chick trying to get out of it's egg shell. However that's not even the end of it. One of our other hens has started brooding as well so we have another mother hen and in about a months time we will have more chicks hopefully :-)

 

Party of Five

Baby chick update............we now have five and what an adorable little family they are. Our hen is a very proud mother and has taken to motherhood rather well. It is so cute to watch them communicate with each other.

Lovely little family

Proud mother hen

Lunch time

Having fun

Don't forget me

So yesterday we were all excited about the new chick and it was all good. However during the night something happened which got us even more excited in the morning. Baby chick has got a sibling YAY. My dad and I went to have a look this morning and there were two little chicks chirpping under their mum. I had to film it so here you are watching them have their breakfast:

A new member of the family

About three weeks ago one of our hens started brooding and we were all over the moon. We don't know how it happened, one day she just stayed sitting down in the place where our hens lay their eggs and didn't move. For the next few days she would collect all of the eggs that the other hens had layed and was brooding in her own corner of the hutch. We had marked the calender and eagerly waited for any sign of new life. Yesterday (31/05/13) the wait was over and one of the chicks had hatched. I was at work all day so I missed the actual egg hatching but when I woke up today I went to have a look. Even though we have had our cockerel since he was an egg, the excitement and the cuteness factor was still very high.  

Mother hen and baby chick 

'Mummy can I have a cuddle please'

Cuddles

Mother hen staring right down the barrel of the lens 

My dad giving the both of them food 

'Mummy I don't want to eat anymore'

Snuggling back under mother hen