My *ahem* darling son thought he was "helping" and broke two of the three I had set out. I rather figured that the first might not be fertile anyway, so I put three more under Beautiful Sweet the Beautiful Sweet Broody.
You could have knocked me over with a Silkie feather when not only the first one turned out to be fertile, but so were the others (which are due to hatch in about an extra week). Yeah, I thought. Just my luck, this first one will either not hatch or be deformed and have to be put down. The first hatch was due tomorrow, so I thought I'd go out and candle tonight.
Imagine my surprise when I opened the cage and heard very tiny peeping. I knew I had to pull her so that my broody hen would set the rest of the fertile eggs. She's so very TINY! (Yes, I'm pretty sure she's a she. She has the wild color pattern and her dorsal stripe doesn't break at the neck. I wonder if she'll be a silver duckwing like daddy?) I thought I'd call her Wasabi, since her daddy's name is Maki and her mama's name is Sushi. Well, I set up a box for her and the fun started.
There were handholds cut out in the box. Since I'd put hay chop in the bottom and lined it with paper towels (covering the handholds), I figured we were OK. Imagine my great surprise when I suddenly heard a tiny little *thump.* She'd jumped out of the handhold and landed on the floor (3 feet down). With my heart in my mouth, I picked her up. Within minutes, she was fine. Pretty precocious for her first day, don't you think? So, Wasabi she is not. Banzai is her new name.
So here she is. Please join me in welcoming Banzai into her first day of life--she's had a rough day already! (sorry some of them are blurry)
No comments:
Post a Comment