Near Death Experience Pays Off!

This morning Lukka was rewarded for three weeks of sacrifice, which almost cost her her life, with the hatching of her first Barnevelder egg! We don’t raise Barnevelders but my friend Kelly does. When Lukka went broody, she gave her three eggs to hatch. These are the first eggs hatched from Kelly’e Barnevelders. When I checked in on Lukka this morning one of her three eggs was zipping. For you non-chicken folks that means it was creating an opening around the perimeter of the egg to allow it to push and separate the shell into two pieces, thus getting out. Tonight I candled the last two eggs. One had an air sac badly positioned on the side and the chick expired. The other one is moving around like crazy inside so I hope it hatches by tomorrow. I’ll update when I know.

Here are the first pictures of Lukka and her baby:

 

Here is Baby Number 1 after I snatched it from lukka for a quick look:

 

(Please don’t worry about me. After I saw this picture today, I went to the store and picked up some Aveeno Intense Relief Hand Cream.)