New Life {Guest post}

My 13 year old son volunteered to do this post for me. He's our fowl expert.  :)

Several months ago, my siblings and I decided to start a chicken-selling business. We wanted to hatch our own baby chicks and sell them as a way to make money.

At that time, we had 1 rooster and 30 laying hens. But we didn't know that the rooster/hen ratio should be 1/12 for successful fertilization.

After realizing that we were 1 rooster short of a successful hatching, a very kind older man gave us a 2nd rooster.

A couple of weeks later, one of Mimi's Black Australorps began setting on some of the eggs. So we moved her and her eggs to a separate coop to wait it out. But 4 weeks later (it only takes 3 weeks for chicken eggs to hatch, but we gave her an extra week) - no baby chicks. We were so disappointed!

Then my Golden Polish went broody. So we moved her and the eggs to what has become the "hatching out" coop.

And 3 weeks later......

SUCCESS! We have 6 baby chicks!!

Some of the chicks have feathered shanks, like Elmer, our first rooster. And some look like they're Aracaunas (which are the colored egg layers) and which is the breed of some of laying hens and the 2nd rooster.

There is one problem, though. This was supposed to be a money-making adventure for us. But we are so attached to this first clutch of baby chicks, there's no way we're going to sell them!

Oh well, maybe next time. After all, there is another hen and her eggs in the hatching out coop.  ;)

Thanks for reading,
Ian

" So God created...every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. "  -  Genesis 1:21