Spring babies

Paisley is just three weeks from her due date--third trimester for a dog! Her tummy is getting big.  We are ridiculously excited for babies!

Paisley sleeps on the floor next to my head.  She insists on scratching the floor like she's making some kind of nest.  It's quite irritating at 2 in the morning...

I guess we have a bit of baby spring fever going on because we have babies everywhere!

Penny, our Buff Orpington hen, has been sitting on a nest of unfertilized eggs for three weeks now.  We couldn't find any Easter Egger chickens so we finally just bought a Buff Orpington and a Brown Leghorn from D&B.  

Might I just mention that D&B might be our favorite store just because it makes us feel like farmers.  Although I felt like a city girl farmer when I asked the chicken lady if I should worry about my hen that keeps sneezing.  She says not to worry but, for the record, chickens can have respiratory infections that need to be treated with antibiotics.  

Penny the Buff Orpington mama

They say that in order to give a hen live chicks we have to take the chicks out at night and give them to the mama, but we did it in the middle of the afternoon.

We just pulled the eggs out and slipped the chicks in under Penny's big fluffy wings.  Worked like a charm!

We put food and water in the coop (usually all food and water is kept outside) and we took the nesting box out so the chicks can get to the food and water more easily. 

**We had a bit of a tragedy yesterday.  Jack broke into the chicken coop when I wasn't outside and, well, lets just say that we had to make another trip to D&B for two more chicks. Two Buff Orpingtons this time though I long for the blue egg laying Americaunas! (none to be found until the end of next month...)**