The Chick/s

The sun has seared down on us for the past two days of this Bank Holiday Weekend. It was supposed to be lashing with rain today but to our delight the sun sunk into every nook and cranny it could find and left me with a bit of a burnt back!

Today will be remembered by me though for the coming of Lavender's chick or chicks. I'm not sure how many exactly have hatched but I definitely had a glimpse of one for a split second around lunchtime. As she is firmly fixed to her spot and refusing to leave her brood, I offered her several spoon fulls of mixed corn which she wolfed down in seconds! She is a devoted Mother and will not move from her position, she knows she has little ones to look after now and that overrides everything, even food and water!

I have noticed though that she has lice and no doubt the chicks will have them too. I used to use Gold Label lice powder on them but have since been told that it has been discontinued. I shall have to look into some chick friendly remedies that will also work on Mummy.


UPDATE 26.05.09 ...
I am very happy to say that Lavender has two beautiful little chicks! very cheeky and very chirpy, they are just wonderful. She still remains sitting on three unhatched eggs, one Orpington egg and two Dorking eggs. They are now three days overdue so I don't think they will come to anything. I shall remove them in the morning if they haven't hatched.

For now Mother and babies are doing fabulously!


UPDATE 27.05.09 ...
Not a happy report I'm afraid. I have just been in to see Lavender and the chicks and have found that she has crushed them to death during the night. It is so upsetting as they were doing so well and were so healthy. The other eggs are still unhatched so I have taken them away now. It has really upset me I have to say as this is the second pair of chicks I have had to bury.

I left the chicks with her once they had hatched as there were no other chickens around her to cause problems. Unfortunately once again I have learnt the hard way and next time will remove any hatched chicks immediately to insure they have a better chance of survival.