The Peeps Are Here!

If it weren't controversial, and since I am not a smoker, I would otherwise be passing cigars all around.  The peeps are hatching!  I feel like an old-fashioned father pacing the waiting room floor!  Disney did such a great job with Pongo and Mr. Daily waiting outside the closet for Misses, Nannies Butler and Cook, and Mrs. Daily to give them updates on the 101 Dalmatian puppies' births.  Only they messed up - they called the mother Perdita, who in the original book was actually a liver spotted, third adult Dalmatian who had already had her litter taken by Cruella De Ville and helped wet nurse Pongo and Misses's litter ... but I digress with my snooty editorializing.

At any rate, the chicks are hatching!  So far there are six - Cuckoo has four, and Moppit-Stoppit and Goldie's shared clutch have two.  Cuckoo has a mix of rare breeds, and the shared girls have all purebred rare Spanish Black Penedesencas.  Sadly, one baby died in its shell, trying to hatch out, and each nest still has two eggies left ... to hatch or not to hatch, that is the question.

I am mesmerized - the babies are SO precocious, they are running in and out of their moms’ wings and tails and chests, as the moms are still So Serious, sitting on the remaining eggies.  The babies are using the moms as play ground equipment.  I have spent my entire adult life working in animal rescue and am very adamant about myself not bringing life deliberately into this world for my own selfish reasons, but this hatching clutch is a rare experience for me - I am actually hatching these rare breeds for a friend of mine who is breeding them to conserve and revive the breeds.  The Penedesenca was almost extinct in the 1980's, and just celebrated the 25th anniversary of their revival.  They are from the Catalonia region of Spain. 

Chickens lay eggs depending on their ear lobe colour - except for Silkies, who have Lavendar earlobes and lay a creme-coloured egg.  White ear lobed chickens lay white eggs, red lobed chickens lay brown eggs.  Penedesencas have white ear lobes and lay one of the four darkest brown eggs that are laid - quite a rarity.  They are VERY flighty - they do NOT make good pets, and the friend that I am hatching them for is a conservationist, not a pet person, like me.

SO ... I'll keep you posted, if I can tear myself away from the little hatching areas!

And tomorrow is the first rescue attempt for Sir Limps A Lot. We are set to go for 9:30 am.  I'll come home as soon as we are done and let you know how things go.

Dorene and the Peeps! We sound like a bad rap band ;)