More peeps!

The first little peep (from this batch) hatched out on August 16th, but it took another two days before the other eggs showed signs of life. It started with a faint peeping that could be heard from inside two of the eggs.


i left them alone for a little while and when i checked on them again, they had pip marks in the shells. The large brown egg is from one of my Black Star hens, and the green eggs comes from my Araucana/americana.



It's so hard to leave them alone! i went back to check them a couple hours later and spied a beak!!


Momma hen was still sitting on a few eggs so we where hoping for a few more. However, after a couple days i knew it was time for her to get up and start taking care of her peeps. So although i figured the eggs were not going to hatch, i moved them under one of the other setting hens, i still have two setting!



They are absolutely the cutest things ever, and my girl is completely in love with them. i have such a hrad time getting her to leave them alone. The first little chick is a mystery bird. It came from a medium sized light brown egg. i believe it's mama is either a Buff Orpington or a Delaware, unless another hen snuck into that coop and laid an egg there. However, it doesn't look a thin like a Buff Orpington or Delaware chick. i suspect that the daddy is our Red bantam rooster. i think he is a Black and Brown Quail Bantam, and the chick are typically dark with red/orange faces. The one with the chipmuck stripes is the Araucana/Americana, and the sweet little black one is a Black Star.



We have not had the best of luck hatching out peeps the past couple of years, so this has been really nice to finally get some new ones. With our hens being new this spring, and one of our roosters being new we'll be getting some interesting crosses. So far, we have four total, one from the first hen and then the three here and i have two other setting hens with eggs scheduled to hatch out in about 1 week.


Our first peep 'Chippy' is beginning to get some feathers and looks like it's mama may have actually been the Speckled Sussex. The patterning looks very similar. Those silly hens are so sneaking about slipping their eggs into another hen's nest.

My other two hens are both sitting on two eggs each. They both have a Black Star egg and one also has a polish egg, and the other has a Americana/araucana. i'm a little disappointed that we're not going to hatch out any Buff Orpington or Cuckoo Maran this time around...but maybe next time!