babies

One of our chickens, Honeydew, started to act broody a while back - wanting to sit on eggs. After she kept it up for a few days, Nana made her a private nest in the old dog house annex to the chicken coop. She passed a trial run of sitting on a clutch of Sophie's wooden play eggs, so Nana went to Swampy Acres to get some possibly-fertilized eggs. Honeydew sat on her eggs faithfully for 23 days, until first two, then four, then six babies hatched!

This is Radish.

Espresso.

And Mama Honeydew, not happy with me for intruding.

There were two more eggs that had chicks inside, but sadly they didn't make it out of their eggs. Papa helped Sophie bury them in a flower bed. The other six are doing fabulously - Honeydew is such a great Mama hen! They are not yet a week old and they are already following Honeydew out into the yard, where she pecks treats and drops them in front of her chicks, teaching them what to eat. Then they all go back in their little nest house for a nap snuggled under Honeydew's wings. It's incredibly entertaining to just sit and watch them eat, drink, play, and fight. And I love watching Honeydew's mothering.

Sophie is working on taming the chicks right from the very start. Welcome to the next generation of chickens in the family: Stew, Mindy, Espresso, Radish, Darrell & Darrell.