80% of the eggs hatched!

Not only that, ALL of the hatchlings are thriving so far!

Romeo (the first hatched) is a little bully. He pecks the other chicks and chases them around the pen. He’s the sweetest little thing when we handle him though; he’s so tame he jumps right up on my hand when I lower it to his eye level.

For those who don’t know, when chicks first hatch, they’re wet and floppy and peep like crazy. They can’t walk well because it seems like their little legs don’t want to straighten for a while.  We turn on the fireplace and hold them on our laps in front of the heat to make sure they get dried quickly and stay warm. Once they’re fluffed out a bit and have had a nap, we put them in the pen.

At first, I was using a box in the bathroom beside the small heater which I kept running 24/7, but since so many have hatched, Ted cleaned out the small water trough, and we’re using that with the heat lamp.

My bathroom is full of real peeps!

Puppers isn’t too sure about them. I think she thinks they’re squeaker toys and doesn’t understand why they can’t be touched! LOL

As of Sunday evening, we have 32 newly hatched chicks in the bathroom.

The majority of them were scared to death of the clump of grass I set in there for them!