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What a weekend. I’m simply exhausted.

Last night I checked my two broodies to see if anyone layed an egg in their nests that they tucked up underneath them. I noticed that the second broody (Broody 2) that had five eggs under her had an egg with a crack in it. My first thought was “Oh, no. Someone pecked that egg.” But then I heard a little “cheep, cheep” and I realized that an egg had pipped! This morning I awoke to this:

Now just how dad gum cute is that???? It was all I could do not to kiss that baby chick’s wings right off of her. Later in the day, I found this:

Be still my heart. I seriously had the shakes just looking at those babies and forcing myself not to pick them up and kiss their beaks slap off. Mama hen actually hatched one more, for a total of three. But I could not get a picture of all of them together tonight. She is just about sick and tired of me poking around snapping pictures tonight.

Naturally, I had my network going during all this excitement. Mama and Cousin Julie suggested I take a pipping egg and give it to Broody 1 to hatch.  But I was worried. Broody 1,is the first hen I had that went broody. She had been sitting on a dud egg for about six weeks. And today was the first day she had gotten off of that egg for about an hour. She desperately wanted to hatch an egg. So I decided to take a chance and I put an egg that had pipped underneath her. And here she is a few hours later - look at the lower bottom portion of this picture:

I can’t tell you how happy Broody 1 is with that little peep. She actually pecked me when I lifted her to take that picture of her baby. Broody 1 is extremely sweet and never pecks - apparently unless she has a baby to protect. That other egg in that picture is the last of the eggs that were under Broody 2. It had pipped, so I gave it to Broody 1. Hopefully by tomorrow morning Broody 1 will be happily caring for two baby chicks, and Broody 2 will be happily caring for her three chicks.

Lordy, I do love my chickens.

We started on the greenhouse this weekend. Let me be the first to tell you, this job definitely takes at least two people. No doubt about it. We got the ground leveled and the front and back portion of the greenhouse put together. We still have two sides and the roof to go. I’ll post pictures of the progress next week. Right now I’m simply pooped from working on the greenhouse, worrying about hatching little chicks, and trying to keep up with puppies during all of it.

I’ve left the little biddies alone today. I’ve only disturbed them to take pictures. But tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow every one of those biddies gets picked up and kissed. I know some people will swear you should leave baby chicks alone and not touch them, but let me tell you that I kissed every single one of the 27 one day old chicks I started with and I only lost five of them. And I’d like to think those five died from causes other than my kisses. I’d also like to think the 22 that survived are stronger as a result of my kisses. These five little biddies are going to find out. Tomorrow they’re getting kisses. And lots of them.

Bee Free,

Penny