Our Welsummer hen has been broody for a while and sitting tight on six eggs for the last three weeks. A hen sits for twenty one days so I had been expecting the eggs to begin to hatch tomorrow. This afternoon I was out in the kitchen garden inspecting the growth of the gooseberries as an alternative to doing anything more strenuous in the blue, still heat, when I heard a cheeping. At first I thought it was a bird in the hedge but when I stood very still it seemed to be coming from the henhouse.
We went over for a look. When we lifted the lid the hen was still sitting with the familiar spread wings. The cheeping fell silent. Ian gently lifted her to have a look. The first thing we saw was a couple of empty eggshells and then a tiny yellow chick, already beginning to fluff out.
Moving her again there was another chick, this one still wet and flat and two more empty eggshells along with the two eggs yet to hatch. The nesting box she was in sits a little higher than the main body of the henhouse and two tiny chicks had fallen out an inch or two down into the main house. We gathered them up and put them back with the mother. Then Ian blocked the entry and put her back on the eggs and chicks. Tomorrow we shall move them all into the main house.
Chicks are just impossibly perfect. Another one has hatched tonight. Tomorrow I shall get some better pictures!
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