We had a barred rock hen go broody about 3 weeks ago...she dilligently sat on 14 eggs. 2 hatched last week, and both died the next day...one from the cold and one was found laying in the middle of the yard when we returned from the library (we think the cat did it!) So the hen called it quits and left the rest of the eggs! Megan, Cait and I candled them to find that the remaining 12 were growing as well! So we put them in the incubator and yesterday we got a surprise!
This cute little one! We left it in the incubator for over 24 hours...we're pretty sure our last baby chick that incubated a few months ago was killed by us handling it too much, too soon. So far, so good with this one! Hopefully the other 11 eggs will hatch as well. We have lost 7 barred rock hens total so far(that's a loss of 6,300 eggs!!!...they each lay 300+ a year and they lay for 3 years!) So to have them replaced, by nature, without having to buy more, would be a huge blessing!
Here are our 25 chicks that we recieved in September. They are almost ready to join our other flock of barred rocks. We have kept them seperate due to their size difference. They will start laying eggs in February-March.
And here are our barred rocks that we have had since Easter. The hens faithfully lay for us every day. Although their production has slowed down a bit due to the shorter sunshiny days.
We cleaned out the garden boxes today to ready them to move (next week!!) and they all had a hayday pecking for grubs and such. Then they all got comfy and took a nap.
The puppies are a month old today! The kids LOVE to play with them. They are going to be hard to give up!!
Have a wonderful weekend!!
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