We have a happy announcement on behalf of Eowyn the Cochin Banty Hen! Allow me to introduce her two as yet unnamed chicks. She has been setting 8 eggs. Two hatched sometime in the past 24 hours; these babies are really tiny! Lil Miss A found one underneath Eowyn, and the other tucked under Peanut, the younger banty hen who just started setting. Peanut didn't want to part with it, but we gave it back to Eowyn. She is in a nesting box, so it probably fell off the shelf where Peanut retrieved it. We gave Peanut all the rest of Eowyn's clutch of eggs, in addition to those we just let her start setting. I think one more of Eowyn's has a chance of hatching; the others are pretty light and probably no good.
Both these babies look like Barred Cochins, which their daddy is for sure; the eggs were probably laid by Cinderella, our lone Barred hen. Eowyn doesn't lay much anymore; she's an old lady. But an excellent mother. She is so pleased to have chicks again!
Bo is always interested in baby chicks. He feels very protective of them. This worked great when we had a box of them from a hatchery; he could guard them and push between the box and any visitors who dared to look inside, and just generally act like a bachelor uncle to them. It works much less well when the chicks have a possessive little mommy already looking after them. This morning Eowyn did let him get a good sniff of her babies, though, amazingly. He is guarding them and her right now.
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