First New Babies

Our first new babies have arrived at the farm!

Yes, winter is just beginning, however, these wee ones are inside!

Our Love Birds, Peaches (daddy) and Posey (mama) have laid 5 eggs and the first of the five hatched yesterday with what appeared to be a naked chick (never did see much of anything of an egg shell left... bet they got rid of it in the bottom of the cage or ate it). Within a few hours it was dry and fluffy. It lays on its belly and hasn't said a thing yet. But what a gift of 'Thanksgiving' on Thanksgiving Day!

This is Mommy and Daddy. Peaches is toward the front. Posey is closer to her nesting box.

Peaches and Posey arrived to the farm as a gift from friends who decided after getting them they did not want 'parrots'. We could not have been more thrilled. They are quite quiet birds and have a tendency to keep to their nesting box... coming out only to poop, eat, drink, talk (very little) and do what Love Birds do best (throat clear - whisper) we have given them a curtain for privacy now. (now that I have written this they will become quite noisy! ~ right!)

Anyway, within a week of their early November arrival they started laying eggs. At the end of two weeks they had successfully laid 5 eggs. They are so very tiny. About the size of a penny! A couple of days before she had laid the first egg. This picture is from November 7th.

They are both very bashful as far as sneaking a peak at them in their nesting box is concerned. Whenever we open the lid they vacate! This is a picture of Posey's tail. Isn't her color just beautiful and vibrant?! Peaches is the same color that I just painted our Kitchen walls... Ivy Green (of course!). He has such a lovely lighter peach face. On November 9th the third egg arrived and then on the tenth the fourth egg! They sometimes skipped a day. A typical clutch for a Love Bird is 4 to 6 eggs.

Posey is a very diligent Mum. Normally she would vacate as soon as the door was opened, but here I was able to get a picture of her on her precious 4 eggs. Just before we got them our friend had removed and disposed of 6 eggs and replaced them with marbles. I'm sure they had to guess that something was amiss. So, I think she is even more diligent this time around.Here she leaves so we can get a peek at the fifth wee miracle that was laid on the 12th. Then we waited to see if she would lay a 6th... but no. Five is a nice number. And if all survive the first three to four weeks with mom and dad we are going to remove them and start hand raising them. It is going to be interesting, but oh so rewarding! Love Birds which have been hand raised can be very nice companions, sit on your finger, talk with you, take a ride in a car, etc. This pair came with a little 'traveling' cage for just such events and we have read about people taking them on vacations with them as well.

And now they have started to hatch. We peeked in to show the relatives the eggs yesterday and there he/she was... still wet from hatching. A bit before we had heard some chirping. Now, I know why. This was a hard picture to get and the focus is not so good. However, the dark spot you see is an eye. And you can see little shell fragments around. It has little yellow fuzz all over. This wee one was laid on November 5th and hatched on November 27th. (22 days! Wish it was like that with us! Right ladies?!)