38 CommentsShare: |
Subscribe
I had 26 eggs in the incubator, none of which I thought would hatch since I hadn’t turned them properly. Twenty-two of them were chicken eggs. Thirteen chicks hatched, so that was a pretty good hatch rate, all things considered.
I love little chicks.
I can’t get enough of them. They grow up so fast.
Aaaaaaaaaaack!!!!
Where are my little chicks?
Whew.
One of the last little chicks to hatch had a hard time getting out of the shell. In fact, I don’t think she was meant to be born.
I helped her. I don’t help chicks out of the shell unless it’s to the point that I think they may die if I don’t help them. I helped one chick last year. This is the one chick I helped this year, and she’s still alive–but not quite as she should be. Maybe this is why she wasn’t meant to be born. She is spraddle-legged. I was sure for the first few days that she would die, like any second now. But she’s eating and drinking and apparently determined to live!
What am I going to do with a chicken that can’t walk right? Is she going to have to stay on the porch, dream that she’s a dog, and drink out of a bottle? I finally ended up putting her in a box with just one other little chick for company because she gets stepped on too much when she’s with a crowd.
None of the banty eggs hatched, by the way. I had three banty eggs in the incubator. I’m inclined to think they might not have even been fertilized.
In the meantime, I’ve been waiting on ducklings. Duck eggs take about a week longer than chicken eggs. I’ve been waiting and waiting….and waiting. And wondering if the duck eggs were even fertile. After all, Mr. Duck is awfully shy and retiring.
He and Mrs. Duck are quite attached to each other, and yet they are both so demure, so bashful, so polite. Mr. Duck is nothing like the raping and pillaging roosters.
I imagine Mr. Duck quietly sidling up to Mrs. Duck, kissing the back of her neck, and saying, “Dear, do you think, if you don’t mind, that we might…..” And then they just go to second base or something.
I just couldn’t see it happening between those two. They’re just too…..nice.
But!!! MR. DUCK, YOU DEVIL!!!!
The duck eggs….
….are hatching!
