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.