"Surprise" Chicks

I've titled this "Surprise" Chicks, but rarely am I surprised by the chickens these days. I had a few hens broody in the the one coop, in  a place tricky to get to, so I kind of knew they might be sat on some eggs. 

So when I heard a chirp the other morning I knew that our flock would be getting a little bigger. The three hens had fought and sat on each other for a few weeks and managed to hatch out 6 chicks. These are pure bred Indian game as the eggs were white (our hens that aren't Indian Game lay brown eggs), so it will be interesting to see what birds we get from them.

The magic of having chicks doesn't seem to diminish for the children even though we're done it every year of their life, but then I still get excited about it so I shouldn't be surprised. 

I picked one of the hens to raise them as I've had problems leaving more than one before now, fights break out and chicks can get hurt in the cross fire, as it is one chick has a mark by it's eye and I'm not sure if that was a result of the chickens having a go at each other, I doubt it'll be able to see out of its one eye. Doesn't seem to slow it up so far though. 

 A bit of new life to the smallholding is always welcome. I'm seriously considering doing a big batch of meat chickens again, so I might be ordering some chicks fairly soon as well. 

Who else has been hatching out chicks late in the season? 

Who still loves the magic of holding a baby chick?