We had what we thought was a sick chicken.
She wouldn't leave the coup.
Every time I'd try to pick her up and help her run around she would end up
right back in the coup within just a few minutes.
I told my fellow chicken-loving friend about her behavior
and she asked if she was going to the coup and sitting back
on the unfathered eggs.
I told her "yes".
She said, "Fluffy isn't dying, she's brooding! she wants to be a mama!"
But since we don't have a rooster that dream just wasn't going to happen.
Except that my friend has roosters and a never ending supply of fertile eggs!
We devised a plan and decided that Fluffy would adopt 5 of their eggs
and bring them into her forever family.
So that's what we did!
We even made birth announcements for social media, lol
We marked Fluffy's new eggs so we wouldn't gather those with the freshly laid eggs.
And wouldn't you know, Fluffy did what God created her to do.
She faithfully sat on those eggs for 21 days.
She rarely took a break.
She gently turned and rotated those new babies.
She lost her chest feathers to generate more heat for the eggs.
She lost a ton of weight sitting on those eggs day in and day out.
We religiously candled the eggs at night watching their development.
We have a plethora of photos and videos to prove it!
The entire process was unbelievable!
What a fun, first-hand learning experience with the kids too.
And then baby day came!
I literally couldn't focus on anything else I needed to accomplish that day.
We called the birth family in to enjoy this momentous day with us.
We watched and waited all day.
And then all of a sudden a tiny, damp, fluffy head poked out from under Fluffy.
We had our first chick!
And then another and another.
We had a total of 3 chicks that hatched.
We lost one in the hurricane last fall, but two are still alive and well
and now adding to our daily egg count:)
Welcome to the Colony Farm Lucky and Skippy.
RIP Happy:(
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