We had some new additions this past weekend!
We had 6 babies hatch from our birds. 3 come from our barred rock hens (black chicks) and 3 came from our rhodebar hens (2 blonde chicks and a 'chipmunk' chick). Rhodebar's are an auto-sexing breed which means they have the rare ability to make babies where boys and girls are different colors. As soon as they're born, when they're still wet and not at all cute, I can tell if it's a boy or a girl before it even fully emerges from their egg!
The 6 chicks are now in their brooder in the garage - a 4' baby pool set inside a playpen. They have a heat lamp to keep them warm, fresh food and water, and I'm starting to introduce natural elements like sticks to start climbing on, fodder to start 'finding' greens to eat etc. Because these babies were incubated and didn't have a 'mother' sitting on them as eggs, I can't add them to our flock until they can fend for themselves. Adult chickens tend to bully new additions into their pecking order, so without a mother to protect them, they have to be slowly introduced when they're large enough to run/flap away.
I plan on raising them until they're more able bodied then will find homes for most of them. The 2 blondes are boys and will go to a friend. The chipmunk chick is a girl and will probably stay with us. The 3 black chicks are unknown so I won't know if they are boys/girls until they are a little older.
Even with them living in the garage, Nova and Naveen continue to be perfect hosts like they were with our ducks. They watch the chicks occasionally but do not try to harm them. Zoey and Pepe come in the garage with me occasionally and Pepe looooves baby birds, they really bring out a sensitive side to him. I always joke that Pepe wants to be a mommy when we have new baby birds around ;)
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