13 standard EEs, 12 Cuckoo Marans
Since Francis, our first abandoned chick that hatched on April 20, 3 other bantams hatched on May 3-4. None of the hens seemed to care for them either, so we thought it was safer to bring them inside with Francis.
All are feather-legged like Francis. One is black with a small white bib, one is a pretty self-blue, and the smallest is buff-colored with just a few dark specks near its neck.
Wednesday, 5/11 was the day I had planned to prepare the outdoor chick brooder for the 4 bantam chicks that had hatched from our hens. I just needed to put up draft walls and the heat lamp. When I got home, I noticed that Lee had already set up the brooder for me. How nice! When I looked closer, I saw a lot more chicks! I wasn't expecting them until July/August instead of my original May time frame, since TSC had told me that they had screwed up my special order and had to resend it to the hatchery.
All the chicks look great. There's one runty-sized maran that doesn't appear to be as downy as the others, but it seems to be thriving as well as the more robust-looking chicks. I love the bearded faces of the EEs. It makes their eyes look Asian.