This is a goofy Phoenix hen. She lives in the Big Pen, with a variety of other hens and a couple roosters, one older gentle one and one young upstart. Twice this summer, she has made a nest with eggs up in the loft above the barn in their pen to hatch babies. She is a tough cookie, running off anyone who gets near her little nest. This pen is not conducive to hatching babies, so we do our best to discourage her. Her choice of nesting spots doesn't have a lip on one side, so she even dropped eggs off the side a time or two.
This last time, she nestled into the straw we have stashed up there for winter, and today, she showed up in the pen with the first baby chick. Uh, oh. She is fiercely protective of the little one, though was still trying to divide her time between the eggs and the chick, and there is not a good spot for the little one to get to water and the like. The others consistently mess with anything that would help a little one.
We tried several times yesterday to pull the baby to raise in the brooders with the hatch-lings from the incubator, but here she is, about 9 o'clock last night, with her baby tucked in so tightly that you cannot even see it! Well, we will keep trying, life is sure never dull around here!
Do you have any crazy determined mama types in your flock? Tell us about them! How did you manage babies in groups like this?
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