Cute and Cuter!

Just wanted to share a couple quick pictures of our latest additions. These little guys hatched this week on Wednesday. They are so tiny they fit right on your palm with lots of room to spare. And you have to put marbles in the chick water dish so they can't hop in and drown! I had a momma hen go broody on me, so I ordered some guinea eggs from eBay. Sixteen eggs arrived, but only two developed to keets. Lots of things can happen to shipped eggs that can lower hatch rates, but I'm glad we got something out of them. I would have been really disappointed to wait a month and get nothing. It takes 28 days for guinea eggs to hatch versus 21 days for chicken eggs. Guineas are supposed to be great at keeping down ticks and other bugs. They are loud, but our neighbors had some that would come into our yard and they just sort of grew on me until I needed some of my own. I like their chatter.

Our little chicks have gotten quite big. The past two mornings I have heard funny sounds coming from their little coop and realized it was one of the roosters trying to crow. It's so funny to hear when they first start doing it. It sounds nothing like cock-a-doodle-doo! I can't really think how to describe it--like something being squeezed, I'd say. The two lighter colored ones in the picture are two of the ones that we hatched from the incubator. Actually, the reddish one could be also, but I have a hard time telling them from the banties we bought that are Easter Eggers also.

I'd love to be posting more, but things have been really busy here lately and our internet has been very unreliable. It works fine sometimes and other times it takes ages for anything to load if we can connect at all. Annoying to say the least, but hopefully we'll sort something out with it soon so I can get back to more regular updates.

We're waiting anxiously on goat kids, too. Bambi's due date is the 20th of this month. Which basically means she really could go any time now. Her udder is filling in nicely, and she's pretty wide. Can't wait to see what she has. Betty Bob isn't as big as Bambi, so I'm wondering if she may just have one and Bambi might have twins. I've been able to feel babies moving in both their bellies. Ivy is going to bottle-raise a doe if either of the girls have a doe. She said she'd like a kid out of Betty Bob if it had little elf ears, but since Bambi is due to kid first, I think she'll take a doe of hers if there is one just in case Betty Bob doesn't have a doe. Betty Bob's udder is developing also, but not as much as Bambi's. I think Betty Bob is probably about a week behind Bambi for kidding, but not quite sure on the dates since I didn't actually witness her being bred. Maybe my next update will have kid pictures!