[joyfull]

I was adamant that I wasn't going to hatch any chicks this year but my love of sabelpoots got me into buying a load of hatching eggs in different colours and now I have 22 little sabelpoot chicks. the bigger girls decided they weren't going to be outdone and decided to take themselves off to hatch on their own. Sadly the guinea fowl got stolen with her keets (positive she was stolen as their was no sign of a struggle)  , an araucana got caught by the mink so 10 of her chicks went down to Grannie Annie's for 3 weeks(they are now back with me free ranging) and this morning an araucana appeared with at least 10 more chicks 
Oh dear from none to at least 42 in the matter of a few weeks. I really hope that hatching is the last this year.

[GrannieAnnie]

 

Well you can stop buying hatching eggs, but there isn't much you can do about broody hens disappearing and coming back 3 weeks later with little chickies!!!

[joyfull]

I now have the problem of feeding these wild ones - if she doesn't take them to a coop where I can feed them seperate I will have to leave crumb around for them - but as you know the adults love chick crumb too.
I really hope she does take them back to the beck every night - the mink will surely get them.  I may have to come and borrow your net to catch the little blighters and their mum 

[JaK]

Thats a lot of chicks. What will you do with them all?

[joyfull]

apart from the sabelpoots (which are my babies and only swapped) I will give most of them away as soon as I know the sex of them, and most end up as blue egg layers  . I do have enough coop spaces though to keep any that remain.

[evie2]

You can never have too many poots 

[JaK]

I had to look them up so I knew what they looked like. 

[evie2]

They're very beautiful

[joyfull]

Well I have seen the araucana mum and her babies again this morning and they are certainly not chickens  .
They have bright orange legs so they are guinea fowl keets  . Well at least I do hope they are pure guineas though and not crosses between the chicks and the guineas  . These keets are in a variety of colours (which match my araucana chicks), lavender, black and white but time will tell what colour they end up as 

Quite please that they are guineas as my lavender guinea got stolen along with her keets that were just hatching. I am sure that she was stolen rather than being taken by the mink as there was no sign of any struggle  .
With with another nine guineas plus the remaining two I have left from last years hatching we will have a good alarm call to warn off intruders now  .

[bantam novice]

Better than electronic and digital alarms
So where are the pics? 

[evie2]

Lets hope they're pure guinea fowl Joyfull 

[joyfull]

The more I get to see them the more convinced I am that they may be crosses, they certainly have the colouring of the araucanas but their legs are the wrong colour. Oh well time will tell. If mum calms down and lets me get closer I will try to take some photos.