Peep! Peep! We’re Here!

 

First off, if you've been wondering where I've been and why I've not been by your blogs to visit the past few days, it's because I've not had much online time due to being mega busy. We’ve been to Santa Fe and Albuquerque, to the Renaissance Fair and the State Fair, hiking, visiting friends, and entertaining friends, too. That doesn’t even include all the ranch, homeschooling and animal care around here either. Whew! I could use a vacation at the beach, exotic umbrella drink in my hand while sitting with my toes in the surf. Aaahhh!

Oh! And then we’ve been dealing with much colder weather the past few days, too. At night it’s been dipping into the mid 20’s and doesn’t get much higher than 65-70 degrees during the day. It has already snowed up in Northern New Mexico, and I can see the snow-covered mountains of Santa Fe as I drive into town. Our much needed monsoons arrived way too late and didn’t allow our grasses to grow tall enough to use as pasture for the animals.  And everyone seems to think that we’re in for a brutally cold, snowy winter this year. I hope not!

How’s the weather in your area?

 

Ok!!! Now for the exciting news!!!

 

THE CHICKS ARE HERE!!!!!!

 On Thursday I went into the coop to check on Mrs. Cotton and let her out to stretch her legs and take her daily dust bath, and as I was reaching towards her I thought I heard peeping! I was very surprised because, by my calculations, I wasn’t expecting any chicks until Sunday (chick gestation is typically 21 days). But, to the left of Mrs. Cotton, I saw what appeared to be a fuzzy shadow. Can you see it, too?

I was so excited! My kidlets think it is so awesome that these are the first chicks to be born on Laughing Orca Ranch!

  

Two of the chicks were already dry and fluffed out, while the third was still damp. From the discarded egg shells, it appears that two of the chicks have an Ameraucana Mama (Easter Egger chicken=layer of green and blue eggs) and the third chick could have a Silver Laced Wyandotte Mama or possibly a Barred Rock Mama.

As for the Daddy, can you tell who these two look the most like?

 And how about this little one in the front? Seem a little bit ‘silky’ to you?

While we were inspecting and cuddling the babies, Mrs. Cotton shocked me by literally exploding with a massive poop. If I hadn’t read about this phenomenon, I would have thought that my hen was close to death. The poop was the size of a lemon and oddly formed and more solid than a normal chicken poop. Wow! It was seriously the stuff of nightmares!

After inspecting and cuddling the babies, we decided to candle the remaining eggs to see if we might have anymore eggs ready to hatch. There were 7 original eggs and I had placed one extra egg under her a few days later, as I was eagerly waiting for my Polish hen to lay an egg.

So we had a total of 8 eggs that could potentially hatch into chicks. Three of the eggs didn’t appear to be fertilized, one egg had a chick fetus inside that didn’t develop past the very early stages, one egg I’m still not sure about, and one egg (the Polish hen’s egg) does have a chick fetus inside and it appears to be growing properly.

But I’m just not sure how much longer it might be before it’s ready to hatch, or how much longer Mrs. Cotton will be willing to set these last two eggs if she already has three hatched chicks underneath her. Anyone know or have any advice?

What I do know is that it’s very exciting to have these little chicks peeping and peeking out from underneath Mrs. Cotton. It was two years ago next month, that our first order of chicks arrived from Privett’s Hatchery in New Mexico. So it seems only fitting that these little bundles of fluffy cuteness are here now.

(Please excuse the video quality as my batteries were low)

From the Tower of,