The Boo Boo Legacy Lives On With
BooChick-ChickaBoo
Hatching Saturday, May 13, 2006

Here's the inside story.

BooChick breaking out of shell in incubator
BooChick can be seen starting to break through the shell.

  Boo Boo laid three eggs and had a seizure. She recovered from that, and there was another seizure. She recovered from that and in time laid three more eggs, and the day after that third egg, she had another seizure and died!
    Now you need to understand, Boo Boo was kept in her own private suite. I only turned her out for short periods of time under our watchful eye. On one or two occasions, she did spend a little time with BoBo the rooster. Notice his white wing tips. Spice is busy eating while BoBo is busy escorting Boo Boo around the yard.

BoBo BooBoo and Spice

    Well, after she died, we took care of those eggs, got us an incubator, and put six eggs in the incubator. One day I discovered a hole in the first egg she ever laid, and I removed it from the incubator. So, we had five eggs in the incubator. By all evidence, it was very doubtful that any of the eggs were even fertile. Two of the eggs were quite old to be incubating. So we basically had three possibilities.
    Two days before the hatch date of the 12th of May, we had a severe thunderstorm that knocked the electricity out for about three hours between 12:30 am and about 3:30 am. Becky woke me up to tell me about it.
    So, in the rain, I go out and get the generator and hook it up on the front porch, and I proceed to do a hatch watch for the duration. Had we not done this, BooChick would not have been.
    But, Saturday, May 13, at about 3 in the afternoon, the day before Mother's Day, BooChick-ChickaBoo makes the debut. What a nice Mother's Day surprise for Boo Boo! Plus, BooChick came on Sis' birthday! Now if that don't fan your feathers!
   
BooChick out and moving around

BooChick, still wet in incubator, leaving shell behind,
is out and starting to move around.

BooChick white wing tips

Three days old. Notice the white wing tips. Well I wonder where
that comes from, BoBo. You and Boo Boo did spend some quality time together
didn't you.

         By the way, the name BooChick-ChickaBoo evolved by my first naming the chick BooChick, then later Becky coming up with ChickaBoo. Well, I like them both and rather than rename, we will just have both so we can use either one. However, it seems we are using ChickaBoo more than BooChick.
    Also, at this point, the story has taken a very interesting and challenging "twist." Stay close to the coup, and when I get time to sit down and write the next article, you will see what I mean.

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copyright © 2006 Jackie Lynn Calhoun. All rights reserved.