Lots Of Babies On The Way??

Looks like we might have quite a few baby chicks at The Painted Hen soon! I'm so excited. Baby chicks and spring time seem to go hand in hand.  

 These three hens are all "broody"... meaning they are all sitting on nests. They only leave the nest once a day to eat and drink.  They pull out their stomach feathers to allow heat to get to the eggs.

From left to right we have D.C.(a Dark Cornish), Autumn (a Black Australorp), and Mavis (a Silver Spangled Hamburg).  The week of Mother's Day, their babies should hatch if all goes well.

Not content to let the hens have all the fun, I've borrowed an incubator from my neighbor and I'm trying my hand at hatching chicks.  My sister has a friend who has Marans hens. They lay the super dark brown eggs on the left.  She shipped me a dozen (hopefully fertilized) eggs in the mail. I'm really hoping I have good luck with them and I add a few hens to the flock that will lay dark eggs.

I've put 55 eggs in the incubator and if all goes well, we'll have chicks hatching around May 16th.

I'll be sure to post updates!