Sally Henny Penny and the Chicks

One of our chicks went "broody" which means she wanted to sit on some eggs and hatch them.
Since we don't have a rooster anymore, our neighbor gave us some of the fertilized eggs from her flock.
We slipped them under her and 21 days later, there was the sound of little peeps!

I think there was a total of nine eggs, but only three hatched.  Their dad is a Polish breed and has a crazy mohawk, so these little ones will be fun to look at.

It has been the best thing ever to watch this mama in action.  She is such a good little mother.  She has all kinds of different sounds she makes to call and direct her babies and they are quick to obey! It has been amazing to watch her teach them the ways of the world and take care and protect them.  Those little chicks would climb all over their mama and nestle under her wing and stand on her back when they were young.  It was hard to get a photo of them, but you can see a little beak poking out from her wing.

We now have another broody hen (Big, fat Yellow the Buff Oprington.  A notoriously broody breed) that has four eggs under her.  They should be hatching in about a week.  More mohawk babies!  It's so much easier to have the chickens hatch out a clutch and take care of the chicks rather than buying day old chicks and fussing with heat lamps and trying to introduce them to the flock without getting pecked to death. Nature rules! (Even if they are surrogate moms.)

Yesterday we had a scare with what I think is a Golden Eagle. (Or the biggest hawk I have ever seen!)  I walked out onto the deck and saw it in the tree in the backyard and all of the chickens were cowering under a bush below.  I ran down and tried to do a head count but couldn't find the babies anywhere.  mama Sally was very upset.  I finally found one baby hiding deep under a bush, and M-11 found another clear across the yard which was very weird since they always stay together.  But no sign of the jet black chick...I was positive the  eagle got it.  More than an hour later, I looked out the window and heard a loud cheeping.  Out ran the lost chick, straight for mama!  I was so excited I shouted out, "There it is!" Sally was so glad to have her chicks all back together, but she gave it firm talking to by clucking and fussing. I'm sure she was saying, "Where have you been??  I have been worried sick about you!!"
 Here they are today at six weeks old.

This little one only has a left eye. She does perfectly well, though, and nobody bothers her because of her disability.  Mama Sally makes sure of that.