Here a chick, There a chick, Everywhere a chick, chick

Brick, separated from the other chickens so they don't bug her while she sits on her eggs

Our hen, Brick (she's a Rhode Island Red) began clucking about a month ago. Unfortunately, she had nothing to cluck on.

Our roosters (THREE of them, thanks to a straight-run purchase) are still teenagers and well, you know teenagers. They think they know what they're all about, but really they have no clue. They have been, as Mr. GT so succinctly put it, "messing with the hens," but they were teenagers as well, and they aren't laying yet.

Oh, and there was the small fact that the teenagers are still in a completely separate pen from the mature hens because the mature hens are old and crotchety and don't WANT to be messed with. They peck the young chicks.

So all Brick had to work with were the 7 daily eggs our celebate, spinster chickens laid.

Mrs. McClean to the rescue. Our good chickeny friend has roosters AND hens. Mr. GT and RoseBud made a fertile-egg run one day and put them under Brick. Eight potential new chicks.

So faithful Brick has been busily, err, boringly sitting on eight eggs for the past 21 days.

Today is day 21.

RoseBud was sure she heard peeping last night. She and Mr. GT were able to get Brick off the eggs briefly, but all they saw were eggs. Seven of them. (oh yeah. one egg mysteriously disappeared earlier this week. No sign whatsoever of it or any chick.)

Anyhoo, they decided the peeping was coming from within the eggs

This morning we distinctly heard peeping coming from under Brick. RoseBud staked out the nest.

It wasn't long before she came FLYING down the hill from the chicken coop. Yes, there was a chick. Then another. Then maybe another. Was it the second chick again? Or a new one? It seemed wetter and darker.

So here are the results as of 12 noon:

Uno, chick #1, belonging to RoseBud (of course)

Sage, #2, belongs to Daisy

Basil, #3, Pepper's chick

Chili, #4, Banana Boy

Peppercorn, who was going to be Spicy until we saw that it was black, belongs to Sunshine

#6 has not yet appeared, but if it does, Mr. GT's chick will be named Dill. Do you detect a theme here?

It would be so fitting if there were 7, one for each of us. I'm still thinking about names....

If you look really closely, you can see Basil over on the far left, just above the water dish.