21 Days

From this..... to this..... ..... in just 21 days.

(previous to me intruding with the camera they were all sleeping in the classic text book circle underneath the warmth of the lamp)

The chicks in the incubator have hatched and are now happily snuggled down in the brooder pen in the poultry shed.

It never ceases to amaze me that a instinct for survival and natural behaviour is there from the beginning; but no matter how much I enjoy watching the eggs hatch and caring for the chicks it still saddens me a little when I compare their lives to the chicks with the mother hen in a run just a few metres away.