More Chix Pix

Right on time! Today is Little Red's due date, and when I checked on her this morning she had kicked an empty eggshell out of the nest. When I went back to take a picture she had kicked out a second one!

Big Red is still carefully guarding her chicks, and showing them what to eat. I gave them some leftovers yesterday and the whole group was pecking away at it. What's good to eat when you're a chicken? Everything!

Ok, this is Big Red's look that says 'you've seen them, now back off!!!' She's serious too! She pecked me several times while I was refilling their food bowl.

Big Red (and Little Red) are very pretty birds, they are a mix of Easter Eggers with Game Birds, and they are much smaller than the Buff Orpingtons or Penny the Cochin. However, the chicks they hatched are not theirs. Once they went broody they stopped laying. Normally they would have saved up a batch of their own eggs to sit on before going broody, but since we pick up eggs everyday for our own use, their eggs were already gone. So the eggs Big Red chose to sit, and the eggs I gave to Little Red, are all from the Buff hens, or there could be one or two of their sister's eggs mixed in there. But the fluffy little yellow chicks are most likely pure Buff Orpington. Not that mama hen cares, she's just doing what nature tells her to.