Araucana Chickens
One little black hen sat for 21 days on a nest of supposedly eight eggs. She decided though to lay one of her own in with the Araucana eggs I had her sitting on. But it didn't hatch, the factor that I had already taken the roster out (along with the rest of the chooks) obviously didn't occur to this little black hen... I'm not even sure when she laid it because I realized it was there when she had sat on the eggs for more than a week already.
After the eight Araucana eggs had done hatching she stopped siting on the nest and left her own egg to get cold, she had enough babies though! My araucana hen and rooster are both light coloured but it seems they could end up with all different colouring of their children, if fluff is anything to judge by. I have two rather yellow chicks, one rather dark one and the rest are somewhere in between.
Pipi caught a moth and gave it to one of the chicks then took it off the chick and gave it to another and another. I realized each chick got left with a small piece of moth to eat, that was actually smaller than their head, I had wondered how the hen thought her chicks would be able to eat a moth that big.
The chick in the photo below has splotches of grey and yellow and is rather unique! of course they are all so sweet, tiny and fluffy.
I let the hen (Pipi) and her eight fuzz balls out each day and watch them while they scratch around in the dirt. Meanwhile Australian Ravens sit in nearby trees watching. Pipi dug up a lot of mealworms, I got a surprise when the chicks started swallowing them whole! Some of the grubs were small but others were almost as round as the chicks mouth.
One little yellow fuzz ball chased meat ants around till she finally caught one. It bit her and strangely enough she let it go, then promptly started chasing them again.
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3 comments
Chicks are so cute. It almost makes me want to have them again. ALMOST....
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures Clare!
Simply adorable!!!!
ReplyDeleteAwww!! They are soo cute! We wish we could have chickens again.
ReplyDeleteWe love all the colors you got.