After much effort on all of our parts we finally have two baby chicks for Secret, our broody hen. (...the long saga goes...she sat on 3 eggs that never hatched, we replaced with 3 more eggs, out of those three eggs only one hatched...we added two more 3 day old chicks, just snuck them under her while she slept. she accepted 1 as her own and we sent back the one she wouldn't feed. so now we have 2 chicks and Secret is both a surrogate and adopted parent! And she rocks at it!)
One chic is named Evie. She's the one that hatched under Secret and she is the yellow and black one and will grow to be a gigantic Black Astrolorp. She was named by Silas for the Pokemon, Evie.
The all black chick is named Violet. Mac picked her name out of a baby book....she's the little one we slipped under Secret as a chick...and she will grow to be similar looking to Secret because she is also an Americana.
They have now been transferred from Mac's room, where Secret sat her eggs for a long while. Now that Secret is taking them out to learn to eat and scratch and generally act like chickens, we moved them to what used to be the outdoor bunny enclosure before the bunnies decided they like the backyard better. It's a perfect spot for them and we've hung fabric so the hawks won't spy them.
And now we basically don't have to do much because Secret is an amazin chicken mama. I love baby animals but it is a whole new kinda love when you get watch them be mothers. All that instinctual animal behavior.....so cool to observe. Those little chicks just tuck right under her wing when she calls. They follow everything she does.
