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!

Sneaky Mama Hens are at it Again!

Thursday evening, I picked the kids up from a visit with their grandparents. Wyatt looked at me and said, "There is something I need to show you when we get home..."

Those two hens that had gotten around me and snuck out of their pen a few weeks back have been eating the spinach, kale and lettuce, as well as the cauliflower. I have been trying hard to thwart them, and the geese even let them eat at their food bowl, but we have not been able to catch them or keep them out of the veggies.

And now, they hatched another round of babies in the loft above the garden shed! 

Unlike the ones we intentionally hatch, these are barnyard mixes, from goofy Phoenix mamas and either Buckeye or Brahma fathers. Anyone want to guess?

This little one cannot face the camera and hid her head...

No, no, mama! I am not ready for a photo op!

The coloring looks a lot like a Phoenix baby, maybe the Buckeye mix on this one.

This tough mama hen does not want us near her babies!

Wyatt counted seven babies there, but hasn't been able to do anything about bringing them in the house, so we are putting food and water up there and hoping and checking on them. They might not be intentional babies, but they are sweet little creatures we will care for!

Boy, these animals love to keep us on our toes!

The Story of Another Baby

This Phoenix mama decided to be another sneaky hen... this isn't a good time of year for having little ones in the chicken pens. As happy as we always are for the blessings of new life and new friends, we were concerned. This hen, while very sweet, is also not experienced in seeing chicks all the way through to adulthood. We typically end up finding them, like Tiny, separate. But she was so devoted and determined, we tried to make it work.

Here she is in the back corner of the barn with her little one.

She was very protective, and didn't want me to see the chick, let alone touch it.

Things were going along well, until the other night, a little over a week in, when I was in the Brahma pen next door and heard a splash. I looked over to see the baby had fallen into a water play bucket for the older chickens, and ran out to the other en to help.  Bailey grabbed me a towel, and little one helped me do chores.

THe mama attacked me as I pulled the baby from the water. Then, as I had the baby in my arms and helped Wyat with some eggs the mama had been hiding with the other sneaky mama hen, the mama of this baby came back.  I got baby dry, and really didn't know what to do.

Shadow weighed in on the decision. The kids and I felt that since the mama didn't have any eggs to neglect the baby for, maybe we should try her back in there. So the baby went out, and a very relieved mama took back over.

The following morning, baby was back to antics, running in and out of every spot she could find where the other chickens had dug. She found a way at a corner in and out of the pen. Wyatt and Shadow and the geese ran off some hawks, but couldn't catch the baby again to bring her inside.

By the next morning, we couldn't find the baby. It is always hard to lose one of the flock or herd.  And such a cute little one, too. We can't second guess what we thought was the best choice, but we might make a different one next time. Have you ever had one disappear like that?  By that last picture, I think Shadow was ready to cuddle another little one like her buddy Tiny!

An update on Tiny...

As many of you know, Tiny was hatched in the big pen to a mama who couldn't juggle eggs still in the nest alongside her responsibilities as a mama of a live baby chick. On evening walk around one night, we found the mama up on her eggs, and the baby chick hiding in the corner of the barn, crying and hollering.

We brought Tiny in the house, where she cuddled with Bailey and even slept in a box in her bed, then the kids left town for a hunt and I was left with a very upset baby. By now we had nicknamed the little one Tiny, and I ended up giving her a stuffed animal to cuddle with. She apparently preferred it to me. Talk about putting me in my place!

I hope to put some photos in here tonight, but I realize just how late I am in sharing the update!

Tiny grew, and began roosting on the side of the trough she was living in. She started getting out of the trough,, wandering the house, exploring and talking to the dogs. Sometimes to us people, too.  Shadow would find her, hollering away from various spots in the house, and Shadow would be sure she was lost. She would either coax Tiny back tot he living room or come get me to help her.  Shadow was very concerned about Tiny.  Goofy animals!

Tiny wanted to cuddle with Vegas and Shadow. Vegas often ran away from her, Shadow was initially pretty stressed out by the notion, since chickens are off limits to her, but they eventually formed a great friendship.

Tiny really needed to move out of the house. Every group we tried her with was either too big for her, or they were very unkind. We tried putting her with the bantam chicks on the back porch who were only a little bigger than her, but both times we tried, they went after her, and he would pull her back inside.

Meanwhile, our friend Toni had left several eggs with one of her hens. Only one of them hatched, and was living in the bathroom, growing up and getting its feathers. The baby at Toni's house was a couple weeks younger than Tiny, but short of purchasing a a friend for Tiny, I didn't really have any options for her, and wasn't interested in having a "house chicken"!

So, I messaged Toni on facebook, asking if she would like to have Tiny as a friend fro her little one, so they could grow up together.  A few weeks ago, I got to see my friend Toni, and we sent Tiny along with her, along with her little stuffed bear.  Toni later let me know that Tiny has taken the other little one under her wing.  They have bonded and are now friends. Yay!  Seems like the best possible outcome to me.

Then, about a week later, Wyatt came inside to tell me that the straw I saw knocked down wasn't his fault. I was pretty certain that it had happened when he and his sister got straw to take some of the chickens tot he show in the rain. Apparentlym there was also a her up there, hatching a couple baby chicks...

Phoenix Baby is On the Move...

Everybody loves a little ball of fuzz.  This is the little one hatched by the Phoenix mama in the big pen. At first, she was being really attentive and tremendously protective of her little one.  We occasionally caught her trying to divide her time between her little chick and the eggs she still had in the straw loft in the top of their hen house.

Then, last night, when we got home from poultry ans dog project meetings, we checked on the doe due to kid, fed everyone, and began our walk around.  When we got to the big pen, the mama and baby weren't in their usual spots, and my flashlight was dying (isn't that how it always works?) so Wyatt began helping me follow a quiet chirp. The mama had gone back up to the loft to sit on her eggs, the baby was alone on the floor in the corner.

I scooped her up and brought her into the house so Wyatt could finish a couple things, and she warmed up in my hands while I finished off in the baby wards.  Some girls just aren't meant to be mamas, the mama in this case really needed a better space for raising chicks, and she isn't tame enough to manage it.

Bailey took the little one out to the the juvenile area, and waited to see if she would do okay with the bantam Cochins and Silkies in there.  The little ones drew her in and the larger ones wrapped her with wings, and she settled in for the night.  We hoped for the best.

This morning, as I was rushing to work through my chores, I saw the baby was having trouble with the wire mesh cage floor. I hadn't thought about that, since she was raised on the dirt floor of the big pen. After checking on Glory, I handed Bailey a towel and the little one, she was going to evaluate her inside for a little bit.  Think good thoughts, every life is precious, we just hope she is able to integrate well into the group, since we won't have any more little babies for almost another month.

Such are the days for us livestock mamas, looking after the little ones and their mamas and friends.  FOr those other livestock mamas out there, and mamas in general, got any stories to share?