Winter chicks...

The tell-tale shell!  It's so cool how the chick unzips the egg much like we would take the lid off a hard-boiled egg.Snow White was all about rolling her eggs out of the nest today.  She probably knows something I don't, but I gave her reject eggs to Heather, in the duplex next door.There's the chick!  All of them spilling out of the box.There was another chick as well, partially hatched, but her egg was crushed like it had been stepped on, as if being in an egg isn't cramped enough.  The membrane was drying out, so the chick was in trouble.  The membrane that keeps them alive in the egg can kill them when they are hatching,  if it dries out.  It becomes stiff and adheres to skin and eyes.  I've seen a couple of chicks die during hatching because they couldn't break that membrane or worked too slow and the membrane suffocated them.  That's gross and sad.  But this chick, I rapidly grabbed it and peeled it, Cheep!  Cheep!, and popped it back under the dark hen belly.   It was alive but not necessarily well, so I don't know if it will make it to tomorrow.Tomorrow I'm looking forward to moving the broodery to a fresh spot and making it all clean for the chicks to grow up in for a week or two.  It's pretty messy from two hens pooping for a full term.Everyone else is well.After a year naked, Jean Jacket is sprouting a lot of feathers on her wings, which is excellent.  She must be enjoying her fleece jacket.  Except the black really shows the dirt!There's the keet in the corner, up on the keet highway.  The keet is very active now, a big hopper and it can fly some too.