Chickens

Three of our hens hatched out babies all at the same time and when this happens the hens don’t actually know which babies are whose. So all three decided they were moms to all of them. This was fortunate because sometimes what happens is the hens get confused and reject the babies. But, to complicate matters we had to move all our newly hatched chicks out of the parasite-infested shed and away from the other hens who were attacking them. Orcxance got most of the chicks into a bucket and made a safe space for them on the porch. However, since there was one chick we weren’t able to catch, all three hens decided that one remaining baby was theirs so they didn’t pay attention to the peeping from the porch and instead put their efforts into protecting that last chick, since they thought they’d lost all the rest.

After much effort, Orcxance finally had to go to work, and I tried to herd the hens toward the porch, which wasn’t very successful. But finally I managed to grab the last chick and quickly put it up on the porch. It is not an easy thing to get one chick away from three very protective hens, but eventually it was accomplished. It wasn’t until the hens realized ALL the chicks were gone that they started to search for them in earnest. This led to the success of all three mama hens making it to the place on the porch where their 15 chicks awaited them peeping frantically. There was almost immediate peace and the three hens huddled under the bench and collected all the chicks underneath them.