Queenie and Queenie Baby Pale (QBP) are doing a FABULOUS job of bringing up their 15 chicks together. The chicks seem loyal to both mums, all seem fit and healthy and watching them as one big family is captivating.
Today we ‘encouraged’ them to venture outside, as much because they spend their days raking through all the straw on the floor and making a HUGE mess, as because it was a beautifully warm and sunny day. The very first thing that both mums did was head for the nearest patch of bare earth, and have a jolly good dust bath. After three weeks of sitting on eggs, that must have felt soooo good!
Chickens are very good at ‘talking’ to their chicks and the next few hours was spent clicking and coo-ing away as the mums taught the chicks all the basics in scratching up the ground, looking for food and keeping out of danger.
At the end of the day, everyone was back inside and accounted for and at bedtime, Queenie snuggled up with seven of the chicks whilst QBP took charge of the other eight.
And you’ll never guess: Queenie Baby Blue (QBB) was seen heading for the barn today where she happened to lay her egg in exactly the same place as her sister did all those weeks ago. These ones we are collecting though: NO more chicks this year!!! (Sorry QBB).