Wild Hope Homestead

The three little chickens are now 15 weeks old. I decided it was high time they received names. They didn’t even get temporary names this time, partly because there were only three of them, but mostly because I was nervous that something would happen to them, owing to the fate of their poorly hatchmates early on. However, these three have sailed through everything so far, even the onset of the Mareks disease period. There’s still a chance that they could befall one illness or another, but they have done very well and they deserve names. This time inspired by The Little Fulla’s inclinations, I would like to formally introduce you to Darrington, Blaze and Pickle:

Blaze is the friendliest of the youngies, always coming up to me to see if I’ve got something. She’s not afraid to venture off on her own and often hangs out closer to the oldies than the other two. She has nice clean legs. Pickle has a lot of fluff down below – too much fluff. She is quite shy at the moment, but still nice. She’ll get better as the oldies become less scary. Darrington is a fine young chap so far. He’s eager to eat from my hand when the oldies aren’t too close and has a nice nature, with a bit of shyness to work on. I can’t wait to see how he grows out.

Not to be outdone in attention, our matriarch hen, Frodo, has started going broody again. She’s in good health now, but she had a tough motherhood last time, to the point of worrying me, so I’m going to make sure she has a decent break before being allowed to do any more hatching. Also, we have an incubator now and a heat plate for raising chicks. I am just trying to decide on a plastic bin that suits the purpose of being a brooder to raise young chicks in before delving into an incubator adventure. And of course, I’m wondering when young Darrington will start going to work. Probably not for a little while yet.