Very Late Hatches

Today, I was surprised to find two newly hatched Stafford chicks! This is the latest I have every hatched any as the lights were suddenly changed about five days ago to only half of my lights on for 9 hours but with natural light getting them up and putting them to bed and then my fan on the heat pump went out over the weekend and temperatures soared to 101 F! I hope the mother feeds them. Some have commented that three nests are too many. I go by the number of chicks they raised and allow more nests till a pair raises five chicks. If they raise more, the hen will not likely produce well the following year!

This Border chick hatched July 17th. After much disagreement with the hen, I finally just gave up and let her build a poor nests on the floor and I could not believe she actually hatched a chick this late! It seems late hatches are more likely hens and you can never have too many Border hens!

Unfortunately the lighting changes and the temperature getting so hot resulted in the pair stopping feeding. So Big Bird began feeding it every two hours from 7 am to 8 pm with CeDe Handrearing Food. My husband feeds when I am at work. Earlier we took on hand feeding another Border chick and the last one took about 6 weeks to wean and he said I would still be feeding it when it was old enough to vote! Typically, it takes what seems like forever when you hand feed to get them eating on their own.

As soon as "she" sees me, she starts to beg!

"She" never begs to her birth mother but let me or my husband get in sight and she starts pleading to be fed!

Update photos 8/2/15

8/6/15