Adventures with Crazy Mama Hens

Remember those new babies we told you about last week? The ones hatched by the runaway hen who snuck out of the big pen to hatch eggs in the loft of the garden shed and eat all the lettuce from the raised beds?

This is a pattern for a couple of our hens, who are tremendously insistent upon becoming mamas, but are not all that good at selecting a safe place to hatch energetic little ones or good at managing their little ones once they arrive.

So once Wyatt found the little ones, we began the process of watching for babies to fall from the loft, and watching for the mama hen to be gone so we could relocate the chicks to the brooder inside. Then yesterday, Wyatt found three of the chicks in the floor of the shed and the mama running around outside of the shed, confused about managing the chicks in different places.

I was in town finishing work and some errands, and Bailey called frustrated with her brother for his insistence that the babies should all be caught, and with worry about his less than brilliant ways of climbing up to get them. I told Bailey that he was right, and told her where to find things so he could climb to the loft in a safe way.

When they called again a little later, the little ones wee in a crate of straw, on their way to the brooder inside- a total of six adorable little ones.

The little ones settled into the inside brooder right away, with the bigger chicks who were a week to two weeks older taking to the "mother hen" role instinctively.

By the time I got home from town, they were all doing fine, and names like Cinnamon and Cinnabun, Speedy and Speedy 2 were already in the works. 

 Care to guess which is which?

The largest of these are Brahmas who were hatched inside, there are also Silkies and the little barnyard mixes who seem so intent to be members of the flock.

The really red one just right of center is Cinnamon. Think Wyatt;s heart will ever be too full to love another little animal? I don't! And for all he says the goats aren't necessary, just wait until Silver kids... 

Well, that is enough of a break for me. We began work on the new doe barn this morning before Charlie left for work. He will pick up a few things for me tomorrow with the big truck, but for now the kids and I need to get back to that special project we started outside. We will share some photos of that tonight!