Farming, chick and Zelda

After a few bad farm years, The Husband's retirement and attention to his garden has produced a lot of produce! Those few squash vines in the front have given us a boatload of Zephyr (yellow) squash. String beans are just starting to come in, and corn is getting close to picking time. The only thing that isn't doing so well this year is our tomatoes, thanks to marauding rabbits and groundhogs.

Sadly we are down to one little chick from the broody hen. One was somehow killed in the dog crate when I was still closing them up at night. And the smallest one that I had rescued when it was first hatched just disappeared 2 days ago. 

I am pretty sure the crows got it. They are known nest robbers of baby birds, and this little chick was readily available.

Mom has adjusted and is being super protective of the last one. At night she has her all the way on the top roosting bar 6 feet up in the big coop. I have no idea how chickie makes it up there, only to have big mama sitting on top of her all night long...

Our Zelda goes missing every once in awhile and we worry about her out there in the world of predators and cars zooming by, but she is a feisty little girl and somehow always reappears. She has an orange cat friend who comes and goes as well.

 

Chicks hit the road

Mama hen was still making a big mess stirring up all the hay and pine shavings into the food and water in the new big dog crate. And she broke up the last 2 eggs she was sitting on, probably a day or 2 before they were ready to hatch.

I was cleaning up this mess when she saw an opportunity and jumped ship. I couldn't catch her, so I had to put the big crate on the floor so she could get to her chicks.

She was good about staying with them on the floor of the big coop while dust bathing her dirty old self. (last pic) She was not so good about going in the crate at night with them, but when I put her in there, the littles ran in after her.

On the third day, brazen little mom that she is, she got tired of the dusty coop and took the chicks on the road with her...all the way back to the house! These little egg-size babies followed momma through grass that is taller than they are, at least 500 feet back to the goat barns, and then right up on the front porch here at the house.

At least she managed to get them home safely and even back in the crate last night. Let's pray it goes like that today as well. Keep an eye on them Mama!

Visitors, smiles and chicks

Visiting family from Florida inspired the WoodMan. He had mostly recovered from whatever that was 3 weeks ago that had me worried. He was back to eating and barking, and then the visitors came and he was back to smiling. That's the part I was missing most.

We were expecting some chicks between July 12 and 14, and  magically the first one appeared on the twelfth! This is the same hen who went broody last year, and she was a very good mama. This year she was not quite so patient, probably because I had her isolated in a crate that was too small. After the first 2 were born, she cleaned out the nest and destroyed at least 3  eggs that still had chicks in them. I was able to rescue the little one in the last pic yesterday. She was all covered in dust and hay, and stuck to bits of shell.

I washed her off and hid her in the closet upstairs, away from the cats and Cyrus, and went out and moved mama to a big dog crate. I snuck her back under mama last night when I closed them all up, and magically she is perfectly clean and seems to be healthy today.

There are 2 eggs I also put back under mom, but I don't think she is going to hatch them. This year I think she was happy with her 2 kids...not wanting any more of the 10 that were under her.