Cheeky chicks...

I was in New York this weekend and was delighted to get a voicemail from Laurie, the egg hatching wonder-woman in Ennis. "Letting you know they're hatching, hatching, hatching! They started Friday and should be finished Sunday, if not the stragglers will be done Monday."

On Wednesday our neighbors (Ann and Krista) and I hopped in the car and headed for Ennis. Laurie's been hatching eggs for 15 years and will hatch them for an incredibly modest fee per egg or for half the hatchlings. We opted for the latter. 13 of our 14 eggs hatched though one chick died shortly after. When we arrived Laurie showed us her setup with the incubators, brooder, and a hatching goose! (and yes, I would highly recommend Laurie for hatching eggs - her email is kiaranch@msn.com) I carried a small box down with me and carefully selected six chicks. And and Krista brought home eight (though coincidentally they had a hen go broody in the meantime and she hatched nine chicks so they have 17 babies!)

So here are our six newbies...

Somehow we ended up with a feather-footed gray baby. She's my new favorite.

Sampson's Legacy...

Sampson has a new home. As a last ditch effort before his slaughter I put an ad on craigslist and he is now living in the country with two Rhode Island hens, one of which is broody. Brian drove him out to meet his new owner. Hopefully he'll behave in his new digs!

The slow food tour came through and we had such a blast showing off our coop and talking about the girls. I made a silly, over the top last min touch to the coop. I'm sure we were the craziest people on the tour.

We also delivered  14 of our fertile eggs (and 22 of our neighbors') to a woman with an incubator in Ennis (just south of Dallas). She hatches eggs all the time in three incubators and she candled eggs for us. We even saw a turkey beginning to hatch - if you held the egg to your ear you can hear it scratching around. There were a few brooders full of new babies - the little geese were excited and just talked to her, trying to nibble on her lips. It was so insanely adorable. Made me want geese chicks (like we need any more animals in our backyard!). I was in heaven walking around her miniature horses, peafowl, turkeys, geese, and chickens. She even has two Great Pyrenees puppies being trained to protect her flock. They live with the poultry!

The eggs went into the incubator yesterday and in 21 days we should have chicks! She'll keep half of the hatch and we will have a few little chicks to add to the girls. I'll be anxious to see how many roosters we have out of our seven possible hatchings. I'm not going to dwell on it until after we get them. Sampson's legacy...