"Cheep, Cheep, Cheep, Cheep"

Yea! Our front yard chicken pen is now filled with the constant “cheep, cheep” of four little puffballs with legs and beaks. That’s right, our chicken named Breakfast came through for us by faithfully sitting on the eight eggs I slipped into her nest. Now, we were warned not to expect 100% hatching and although 50% isn’t all that great, we think it’s a good start. Actually, to Breakfast’s credit, one other egg hatched but the chick, for whatever reason, died that same day. Two eggs did not hatch at all. And one egg totally disappeared. Not sure what happened there.

 

Lunch began sitting on a clutch of eggs just five days after Breakfast, but after two weeks (with one week to go), she abandoned them. Why? Well, you have to know that a few weeks ago, as a result of a Gmz woman’s persistence in wanting to sell, we bought another chicken – named “Snack.” She’s a beautiful white hen, but I think she is the main one responsible for Lunch’s failure to persevere. You see, Lunch’s nesting box must have been in the preferred school district because apparently both Snack and Dinner were, unknown to me, cuddling up and laying their eggs in there too. When Lunch’s egg count became too many for her to adequately cover, she gave up. And, although I was quite disappointed in Lunch’s quitter attitude, her plea for mercy was heard and I am giving her another shot before sharpening my knife.