Sunday, when I was at work, I received a text message from my husband. It said “”We got lots of new chicks raining out of the hay loft”. It turns out a hen had secretly sat on a nest up there, despite the fact I had removed the ladder, and I thought eliminated their access to the hay loft in our barn.
So Tom spent part of Sunday morning catching these chicks and their mama and putting them in a crate. Now this hen has a similar background and is quite mean when you try to do anything with her chicks. Yesterday I cleaned up a pen for them and kicked them out of the crate and suffered some injuries from her for my efforts. Here they are in their pen. I think there might be 12 chicks, but it is hard to count them.
In other news, I harvested Weinlander green beans today for the first time in a few years. These are my favorites beans for their taste. In 2014 all I could find were 10 seeds for $2.50. So we planted them and let them make seeds so I could not eat any. Those seeds made three rows of beans this year, and they are finally ready. We had them for dinner, and they are SO good!!!. Plus we froze some. Hopefully we will have a good harvest of them and be able to save seeds and continue to eat well!
The chicks are so cute, what kind of a hen is she? I have a small game hen sitting on a nest on the floor in the corner of the coop, she has been on this nest since the first week in August. I’m hoping for at least one chick, I seen there were at least four eggs going to wait until the end of the first week in September. Did the hen walk up the ladder how did she get the eggs into the hay loft? Ellen from Georgia
Hi Ellen! She is of unknown parentage. I know which hen hatched her but the eggs was not necessarily hers and we have several roosters. The ladder has been gone for a while so she must have flown up there. It us about 10 feet up so it was quite a feat for her and for the chicks that all survived the fall.
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that’s a pretty independent and determined momma hen!
Thanks Denise! She is both. I think her chicks will be just fine with her protecting them.
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I count at least 13 in the photo (there’s chicky feet visible under her belly line)!
Wow, 13! That is a record for us. It is hard for us to count them in person since they are all moving so much or hidden under her. There is quite a variety of colors and patterns too.
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Best Text Message Ever!!!
Thanks Mindy. I thought so. Made me laugh out loud.
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Boy that chixen really has a bad look! BWOCK!!!
She is mean!!!
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