When we got home today there was mama out in the run with the roo and her five sister hens and the wee babbies! I couldn't believe it. Mama was clucking away and pecking away at the ground and the chicks were staying fairly close behind. Nobody was bothering them, it was all one big happy family. One chick decided to go on an adventure through the chain link fence to the wilderness but quickly came back. We immediately put up some 1/4 inch hardware cloth to stop this happening tomorrow while we're at work!
The adventurer later failed to follow mama when she went inside and was quite upset to be left behind, but they communicated back and forth and roo and the other hens rallied until mama came out, provided comfort, and then showed the way inside where they settled into their *private apartment*.
Once mama and babbies went inside, roo followed them right into the apartment! I don't know what he was doing or thinking, but it couldn't have been sinister as he was all cool and mama wasn't freaking out.
I've read so much about things going wrong with hatching in the coop and birds eating or breaking eggs and with introducing the little ones, but our first hatch, though small at only two eggs, has gone perfectly well inside the coop and within the flock under the authority of little miss broody.
The adventurer later failed to follow mama when she went inside and was quite upset to be left behind, but they communicated back and forth and roo and the other hens rallied until mama came out, provided comfort, and then showed the way inside where they settled into their *private apartment*.
Once mama and babbies went inside, roo followed them right into the apartment! I don't know what he was doing or thinking, but it couldn't have been sinister as he was all cool and mama wasn't freaking out.
I've read so much about things going wrong with hatching in the coop and birds eating or breaking eggs and with introducing the little ones, but our first hatch, though small at only two eggs, has gone perfectly well inside the coop and within the flock under the authority of little miss broody.
