This photo was taken yesterday, at which point we were pretty certain that at least one (and possibly two) of Shygirl’s eggs had actually hatched. We’d heard some peeping, and it sounded distinct enough that we were fairly positive that it was not coming from inside of an egg.

This morning, as part of my usual morning chicken chores, I filled up the little chick-sized feeder (actually a plastic lid for a mason jar) with fresh chick starter food and set it back into the broody box.

I then proceeded to leave the coop to dispose of the copious and incredibly pungent poo that leo (another hen who is trying to go broody, but has no eggs to brood upon) had left (betcha didn’t know that broody hens only poo once in a 24-hour period, and boy does it build up in there).

While outside, I overheard the rustle of movement in the broody box, and then suddenly a whole chorus of peeps and cheeps. I ran back to the coop (well, actually, I moved quickly yet carefully back to the coop – one does not run around semi-wild chickens without creating a screeching mass of panicked birds flapping around your head – ask me how I know this). As I bent down next to the broody box, I could see Shygirl at the feeder – and lo and behold, there was a tiny little 2-inch-tall black and white chick standing IN the feeder, chirping. And as I looked further back, I could see two more, even smaller, same-colored chicks standing at the edge of the nest, also chirping.

I was about to run back to the house to get Peter, when Shygirl turned around and walked back to the nest and the remaining four eggs. She talked to the chicks the whole time, and as she settled back in, she lifted her wings, and each chick picked a spot and dove under.

I was thrilled – we hadn’t been sure that any of those eggs would actually hatch, and now here we had three new baby chicks!

Later in the afternoon, it was the same routine. I’d refilled the little chick feeder, this time with Peter in tow, hoping for another glimpse of the chicks. After waiting for a bit with no results, Peter headed on to other tasks. I stayed. Sure enough, about 5-10 minutes later, I heard that chorus of cheeps.

This time, all three chicks from before were at the feeder, and Shygirl was teaching them how to eat. And at the nest: one more super-tiny, freshly hatched chick. Now there are four.

Shygirl is still brooding those last three eggs (while simultaneously mothering the ones that have already hatched), so we may have more babies arrive over the weekend.

Speaking of new babies, Aberdeen’s little girls are doing great. We had them outside in the sunshine for about an hour today, and the robust bay was prancing and jumping and testing out her still-wobbly legs. The black girl seems a little more frail, but she wanted to do everything her sister was doing, and did her best to keep up. Here they are at one day old (these photos were also taken yesterday – it’s hard to believe, but they’ve actually grown some since then).

And last, but not least, Drama Queen’s twins are now one month old. Nikabrik, the multi-colored boy, is big and sturdy, and already acting a little bucky (it’s cute – for now). Lulu (short for Hullabaloo), the bay-colored girl, is a total sweetheart.

Both goatlings are full of energy, and love to run and jump and play. But they both especially love to climb. And they especially especially love to climb people. Like me.

Earlier today, I was feeding the chickens and doing some general clean-up in the coop, when I was startled by what I thought was a soft “peep!” I went inside next to the broody box, and sure enough, heard it again. Then I ran to get Peter so he could hear it too. It appears that at least one of Shygirl’s eggs is going to hatch! (Or possibly already has, though I’ve read that you usually hear them peep from inside the egg up to a day before they peck their way out. The reason we don’t know for sure is that mama hen will keep the newborns under her so they stay warm and dry until the rest of the eggs have hatched.)

And Aberdeen… she’s in labor again! This time it looks like it’s for real. Her contractions have been getting harder and closer together throughout the day, and we’re expecting her to reach the pushing stage at any time.

We fully expect to have anywhere from one to three more goat babies by the time we get to bed tonight, and possibly some baby chicks as well!

More news when we have it…

It seems like whenever we have cool stuff to write about, there’s not actually any time to write it. And when we have time to write, that’s when things are slower around here and there’s not so much to say.

In case you’re wondering, we do still plan to tell you the story of Drama Queen’s labor and birth, hopefully before Aberdeen enters her labor (though by now it may be somewhat anti-climatic, it’s still a cool story, with emergency late-night phone calls and amazing feats of goat midwifery).

And we also have lots of stories about learning to milk a goat, and about a first-time freshener (never been milked before) learning how to be milked. There’s been a lot of ups and downs – the ups include the first morning she actually waited at the gate for us and ran of her own free will to the milking stanchion for her treat, and fresh-that-morning Drama milk in our daily coffee and chai; the downs include kicked-over buckets and spilled milk, and currently some digestive issues that seem to be lowering her milk production to just enough for her babies (with none left over for us).

Also there’s the stories of our little Shygirl hen going broody, which means she’s sitting on a clutch of eggs, most of them not even hers (once she went broody, the other hens started laying their eggs under her). As Peter mentioned in his previous post, she now has her very own broody box where the other hens can’t reach her, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for some baby chicks in about 1 1/2 weeks. Meanwhile, the other 2 hens were upset enough at the change in flock dynamics that they pretty much stopped laying in the nest boxes. Now that Shygirl is in her own space, one of them has started using the boxes again, but the other one still has her secret hidden nest out in the trees somewhere. (Anyone up for an egg hunt? I’m tired of looking, and tired of realizing yet again that my chicken is smarter than I am.)

And then there’s the stories of the babies and their diarrhea, which lead to lots of research that said diarrhea can KILL baby goats, which then lead to taking fecal samples from all three adult goats over to our friend/neighbor/savior’s house (author of the fabulous Goat Health Care) to borrow her microscope and learn how to do a fecal exam (most likely cause of diarrhea in goat kids – worms or other parasites passed on from the rest of the herd or their environment). The adults all tested fine – the babies are over their diarrhea and happy and healthy – probably they just had some digestive upset because they’d started eating solid foods like mom does. (But hoo boy! Looking at goat poo under a microscope is FUN! We’re already lusting after our own ‘scope, and planning fecal exams for all the animals. No really, we are. We don’t own a TV, you see…)

And probably not last, and certainly not least, there’s the story of our approximately 3,000 new animals we’ll be bringing home tomorrow. Yes, I said 3,000. Tomorrow is the day we drive to Eugene to pick up our package of honeybees. We’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks reading up on the art of beekeeping. The main part of our hive is set up and ready to go, and some of our fruit trees are already in bloom, awaiting our newest residents. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of stories to tell about getting them settled into their new home.

And then instead of 11 animals with anywhere from 2-10 more on the way, we’ll have 3,011 animals with anywhere from 2-10 still on the way.

And oh yeah, we’re way behind on our planting…

EDITED TO ADD: Oops, I thought I had read that 1 pound is equal to approximately 1,000 bees. Found out this morning when we picked up our 3 pound box that it actually contains about 10,000 bees. So we now have 10,000 more mouths to feed! Wish us luck, we’ll be hiving them soon…