Only three chicks hatched! Don’t they know they are in a breeding program?

When my friend asked me if we had any spare chickens I was a little premature in assuring her that we had the broody chicken for the job.  So for the last three weeks we have all been waiting patiently for the large pile of eggs to turn into enough chickens to fill their newly acquired coop, top up our flock a little and in complete wishful thinking, defy the odds and be all girls!

It is only now that the phrase ”don’t count your chickens before they hatch” has dawned on me with its full and complete meaning:  Don’t actually count your chickens before they actually hatch!  This now makes perfect sense!

So here we are with three very cute chicks, but they still can’t be counted on to be useful – not just yet.  There were four, but one didn’t make it, and now we have to wait a little longer to see if there are any boys in the trio.  So in fact you shouldn’t count your chickens after they have hatched either!

This is a bit of a dilemma.   What do I do about my friend – she was expected enough chickens to supply her family fresh eggs and seeing how many eggs were in the nest, this didn’t seem out of the realms of possibility.   I could just give her the three chicks and say “here you go – good luck” – but I’m too nice for that – what if they are all boys?

Knowing our chickens I should have expected this situation.  In the four times we have had chickens covertly laying a multitude of eggs in secret places we have had woefully inadequate results.  First attempt – one girl;  second attempt – one boy, third attempt – two girls and a boy and this time – who knows!

We a hoping desperately for a freak of nature in that there are no boys this time, as we have still have enough of a hint of city-slicker-shine on to do anything other than offer unwanted roosters for sale for free on the internet – provided the buyer doesn’t tell us their plans.  Besides catching roosters to suit an appointed time is physically impossible!

Maybe we shouldn’t allow broody chickens to go anywhere near eggs and after the last run around by a rooster, that was our plan but our sneaky chickens worked together to take shameful advantage of a timid child.  They didn’t need to even try and hid the eggs as the attempt to raise a family was done in a brazen fashion in the nesting box!

We gave Tim the Helper the chore of feeding the chickens, giving them fresh water and collecting the eggs.  But he always came back saying there were no eggs, but we found out later it was more a case of a chicken laying an egg at the time would peck at him if he tried to look for eggs, so he decided it would be best to leave well enough alone.  So after all the chickens had laid a descent number of eggs in the “safe” nesting box, Toffee the Chicken got down to the business of sitting.

So here we are with three chicks, not nearly enough, with every possibility that they may be no use at all.

But they are cute and fluffy and make you want to sigh in a soppy way.

Come again soon – the beans have become a bit of a burden.

Sarah the Gardener  : o )