second chance chicks

The yellow mama has hatched out two chicks. There are four more eggs, but I don't think they're going to hatch. I only just discovered the chicks when I went into the mama barn - that's the small barn where I milk the goats, keep the feed, and put any prospective mothers to hatch/birth their babies - to feed the chickens their afternoon ration. Both yellow mama and black mama (my sister says these names are racist) are brooding in there, but yellow mama has been on her eggs for about a week longer than black mama. I had settles them in their own boxes up on the shelf, but when I went in, yellow mama was on the floor and her eggs were uncovered in their box on the shelf.

"What are you doing down there?" I asked, and then I saw a tiny head peek out from under her. The babies must have somehow fallen off the shelf and onto the floor after hatching, but they both seem to be just fine. In the hopes that a few more eggs might hatch, I brought the other four eggs down and placed them next to her, but she paid them no attention. Normally, she'd immediately roll them underneath her breast feathers, but not now. Maybe after some chicks hatch, they abandon whatever eggs haven't hatched after a certain amount of time? I don't know. I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Meanwhile, black mama still has a week to go. I hope that by the time her babies hatch, yellow mama and her brood, however many they turn out to be, will be ready to move on out of the mama barn and join the flock, because I read that mother hens hate each other's babies and will attack them whenever they can. 

And, of course, these chicks have one big advantage over the last batch: the pig is dead (see "sad day on the farm").