bonus chick

Okay so this is slightly odd, but really quite natural... bear with me!

There is a rooster in our freezer right now who has just become a father.

The hatchers: our usual broody pair.
Here's wee little Bonus Chick, fresh out of the egg.

And here he/she is the next day, all fluffed up.

The father: a handsome Light Sussex that we hatched last October. Neatly packaged in our freezer since about a month ago.

From our October hatch we ended up with four roosters, which we had, ah, processed, for consumption. Which of course we must be prepared to do if we want to hatch eggs. This particular boy matured remarkably quickly and was seen doing the 'cock-a-doodle-do' with one or two of the ladies of our flock by about three months old.

A few days after the roosters departed, our super-broody Wyandotte took to the nest again. After a few days of this I decided to throw a few of our own collected eggs under her and see what happened. As I suspected her usual partner-in-broodiness joined in soon after. And three weeks after that, we had a chick! Just the one. But any is a bonus.

So who was the mother? It could have been any of our three Wyandottes or our Wyandotte/Australorp cross. (The two girls from our October hatch are still a way off laying so there was no chance of in-breeding.) It will be interesting to see how this little baby's colouring develops. I only hope with all fingers and toes crossed that it is a girl.

- Jane x