I don't know if you remember me mentioning that the other Dorking-cross was also broody? Well, her egg hatched yesterday morning!
Other Chap (OC) phoned early to say that there was a hatched chick in the broody cage. DH popped down to see it, and then later in the afternoon I went down as well to meet the new arrival.
But it wasn't good news. The poor little chap (or chappess) was cold, and the broody was trying to escape. As soon as I lifted the lid, she was off...rushing over to join Flint and the other Girl. The chick was not doing very well.
DH and I had a discussion about what to do. The ex-Broody was not interested in coming back. The chick was cold. The other egg was stone cold, so she hadn't been sitting for a while. We decided the best thing was to bring the chick home and pop himher in the lunar module brooder.
DH cupped the little thing in his hand, I drove....
Anyway, we put the poor little thing in the brooder, and checked on himher every couple of hours. This morning, he was all fluffy and bright eyed, but looking very lonely. Actually, I don't think chicks have that sort of expression, I'm assuming he's lonely.
We're not quite sure what we're going to do with him/her yet. We might try and integrate with the other 6 dorking/dorking-crosses. There is about a week's difference in age, and we'll need to be very careful how we do it. We'll see what he's like when he's a bit stronger.
Oh, he's also bright yellow, which was a bit of a surprise, so we're assuming he's reverting to whatever cross made his parents. Whatever s/he is, s/he is really, really cute, just like the pics of chicks you see at Easter.
Watch this space!
Other Chap (OC) phoned early to say that there was a hatched chick in the broody cage. DH popped down to see it, and then later in the afternoon I went down as well to meet the new arrival.
But it wasn't good news. The poor little chap (or chappess) was cold, and the broody was trying to escape. As soon as I lifted the lid, she was off...rushing over to join Flint and the other Girl. The chick was not doing very well.
DH and I had a discussion about what to do. The ex-Broody was not interested in coming back. The chick was cold. The other egg was stone cold, so she hadn't been sitting for a while. We decided the best thing was to bring the chick home and pop himher in the lunar module brooder.
DH cupped the little thing in his hand, I drove....
Anyway, we put the poor little thing in the brooder, and checked on himher every couple of hours. This morning, he was all fluffy and bright eyed, but looking very lonely. Actually, I don't think chicks have that sort of expression, I'm assuming he's lonely.
We're not quite sure what we're going to do with him/her yet. We might try and integrate with the other 6 dorking/dorking-crosses. There is about a week's difference in age, and we'll need to be very careful how we do it. We'll see what he's like when he's a bit stronger.
Oh, he's also bright yellow, which was a bit of a surprise, so we're assuming he's reverting to whatever cross made his parents. Whatever s/he is, s/he is really, really cute, just like the pics of chicks you see at Easter.
Watch this space!
