We have chicks! After 21 days of patently waiting we heard our first peep-peeps from the nesting box the day before the 4th of July. I was nervous because last week I found an egg that had been kicked out of its nest with a chick in it that I couldn't seem to save. It was sad and disheartening and I didn't want to go through it again so, approaching the 21 day mark for me was a bit nerve racking! But mother (nature) knows best and our two broody hens sat on our eight eggs for 21 days almost 24 hours a day. I had my doubts but they stuck to it and hatched five chicks! Two of the eggs were unfertilized and we lost the one chick last week so we were successful with hatching two Wheatens and three Easter Eggers. They are little balls of fluff now and follow their moms around learning how to scratch, eat and drink. It's amazing to see things like this work since most of the chicken industry has moved to using incubators as a way of hatching chicks. Also, most keep chicks in a separate area with a heat lamp but our hen mom's seem to be up for the job and brood on them all night to keep them warm. Here are a few pictures of our new farm friends:
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| Chicks all a flutter with their moms |
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| An Easter Egger chick meeting our chick (due next month!) |
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| An Easter Egger chick |
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