Our miracle baby!

I don't post about my feathered little critters much anymore... for good reason! Usually by the time I get the pictures uploaded and update the blog - the little critters have had a fatal encounter with the mighty "bird dog" Phebe!
Today was special though.... I have had two hens that have been "trying" to hatch out a clutch of eggs. They only have a few more days until I take the eggs from them for a quick flight out into the field. One hen in particular quit a few days ago... apparently she does not have the patience to be a Mama yet! The other hen is sort of a "dead beat" mom! She lays on the eggs for about half the day, then lets others lay on the eggs for a few minutes, leaves her eggs alone for hours... just not very diligent! So, today, I went out to check her nest. Apparently, an egg was cracked and made a mess on a couple of the other eggs. I pulled out one egg to do the ceremonial egg toss into the field. As I was walking away, I realized that there was peeping coming from this particular egg! Low and behold... a chick was trying to peek his little way into the world!

Knowing that this particular hen was not really into the mothering thing yet, I took the egg and placed it in a small box under the heat lamp with our guinea keets that are 4 days old. And here is how it progressed....


The chick has been pecking at the egg... small hole and beak is visible!


The chick has fractured about one third of the egg and popped its wing out!


We've got a baby!! Little chick popped its head out into the world!


Out of the egg and getting warmed up!

This was a fun time for the kids... it was nice to be able to tie some life lessons into things... like the mother is not ready to have babies, so we have adopted the baby chick to help him/her grown into a chicken.... I guess there are a few benefits from living the farm life!