Saturday evening we heard some peeping from the hayloft and sure enough the eggs had hatched!! We ended up with seven new chicks. This spot in the hayloft had been the favorite spot for all the hens to lay their eggs so we got quite a variety from our broody Dominique. You can only see one of the chicks in this picture here- they were just born when I took this picture and most were still hiding underneath the hen.
As soon as we saw them up there we grabbed our chick-sized water font (the rubber tub we had up there for the hen just wasn't going to cut it for obvious reasons) and barricaded them in so they couldn't fall out if they wandered. But last night we moved them to the ground in front of our house with a small house and a fenced-in yard where they could wander, eat grass, and be safe with their "mama" hen. Hopefully I'll get a chance to take some more pictures tonight when they're out and about because when we moved them last night they were either inside their shelter or huddled underneath the Dominique most of the time.
Posts
Beatrice! Your such a good mamma..see you should always keep her just for that reason...:)
Nice picture too! Love those baby chicks!
Hope you don't mind a stranger popping in, but I had some questions about Dominiques and your blog came up in my search. How do your Dominiques hold up in the cold? Do you prefer them or the Austrolorps? Would you consider selling some chicks (5-10 pullets and a cock), perhaps closer to spring?
What a great blog,best of luck to you and yours.
Hi Eric
Of course- I love seeing new faces around here. =]
The Dominiques hold up GREAT to the cold! They have a smaller comb than Barred Rocks which helps prevent frost bite and our girls layed all through the winter last year!
I personally like our Australorps better because they are a little larger and lay larger eggs, and they are lovely to look at.
As for the sale of chicks, at the moment we've only got a handful (and I have NO idea yet which are pullets and which are cocks) which are a mix of breeds crossed with one of our Buckeye roosters. If we have more chicks born in the spring this might be more of a possibility- but we'll have to wait and see. =]
Do you live in the area?
Good luck with your own backyard flock!