More babies

Russell the Rooster is a father again. Yesterday we collected five newly hatched chicks from the incubator in the shed and they are now happily cheeping away in the downstairs bathroom. I was worried that they had all been cooked in their shells on the 42 degree day we had not long after I put the eggs in there. The recommended incubation temperature is around 37.5 degrees C, and it's fine if it fluctuates a little one way or the other, but the temperature in the shed that day was much too hot. So I'm delighted that we have five cute little babies out of the 12 eggs we set. Our last batch is now 7+ weeks old, so depending on how many turn out to be cockerels we should have a nice boost to our laying flock once they are big enough. Our menagerie now totals two dogs, one cat and 17 chooks of varying sizes.