I was worried that one of my aged ewes who I call "Ole Crip" (she's had a bum knee for years which buckles under her when she walks) was about to keel over. She was rocking back and forth while leaning on a post. I thought, Oh, No, not now. I then realized she was scratching her back on the post. Whew! Except for Chris' bout with meningeal worm I've been blissfully free from medical problems this winter. Chris is holding with that weak leg seeming to cause him minimal discomfort. I just finished chores and gave him his nightly cracked corn snack. While up in the dark hay mow throwing down bales, I heard a cheap-cheap in the dark. Shined my headlight around and caught a glimpse of a chicken beak in a dog crate. A hen has hatched eggs in there! What to do, what to do. Do I leave her there to hatch the rest of the eggs? Will she be able to fight off the cats when she brings the chicks out? If she is a bantam she can handle the cats, but another hen might not have the fight in her. I thought of closing the door to the crate and dragging it over to the ladder to bring downstairs to the chicken room, but I would need Matt's help. I decided to wait until morning and check out the situation. A hen goes weeks without food and water while she is "broody" but is very thirsty and hungry after the chicks are hatched. It's very inspiring to see a mother hen clucking and fussing over her chicks. She brushes her beak back and forth on the ground to teach them how to find food and never lets them out of her sight. Wouldn't it be nice if all little ones had that kind of parenting?
Ah for the simple life of a chicken. Such good parents they are, and rarely do their children stick around the nest long enough to worry them with those rampaging hormones. There are drawbacks, though...a particularly well-stacked rooster could find himself involuntarily taking a long HOT HOT bath - in the cookpot. :o*
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