Nic's last clutch of Belgians began hatching the night before last and he's got several new little ones courtesy of mumma Tiger who will be raising them. Lily's brood are growing like weeds and Crazy Dot has finished her brood as well with the last ones being clear. I'll get photos of them once they've all finished hatching so I don't disturb her too much.

The little lavender pekin chick, who'd been doing fairly well despite it's funny twisty feathers passed away this afternoon. The lightbulb on their brooder died during the night even though it was a new bulb and they all huddled up together. When I woke in the morning and went to freshen their food and water, they were sitting on top of the poor lavender chick. It was alive, so I took it and set it up on a heating pad on my desk, nestled in a bit of cloth and gave it some rehydrating fluids and it hung on until almost 4pm but then had what looked like a seizure and was gone. Seems like these poor littles have been so ill-fated... 14 set, 5 candled live, 4 hatch, 2 died shortly after I got them and the lavender chick nearly from being chilled in transit and now this poor baby as well. I know it's not directly related but I think I've been really put off buying an incubator tbh... if these eggs had been set under a mother hen they'd have never had to be transported, two wouldn't have died from chilling, this lavender baby wouldn't have had the set-back and maybe the whole thing would have been averted. Really makes me appreciate my wonderful broody mummas so much!