Wonders of the Farm… Surprise!

Saturday morning we were just sharing with a CSA family that from time to time a hen will hatch babies on the farm. Sometimes they even show up without us knowing about it. Well, it happened again. As we were getting ready for Church this morning, Daniel came running in the house shouting, “We have babies!”. Sure enough, strutting across the lawn was a momma hen with her six babies tagging along close behind. So cute, so tiny and much fun to watch. We still don’t know where she hatched her babies but we think it was in the goat pen. The grass has gotten very long but we hadn’t been able to mow because of the rain. In this case we are thankful for the rain so the eggs/babies were not disturbed. Blessings amongst the flood!!!

Momma hens take very good care of their babies. They will cluck & puff up if you come too close to the chicks. She will also defend against roosters & other hens who may want to pick on the babies. Sometimes momma can’t protect the babies by herself so we try to keep a look out for them from a distance. In fact, the first mishap happened when we got home from Church. We saw the momma in front of the summer kitchen. Charlie went down to take a look and do a head count. As I was just getting in the front door, Charlie shouted to Daniel to come quickly. I called for Daniel, kicked off my heals and went down to see what was wrong. Daniel got there first and was proud to see that it is good to be small sometimes. He was able to reach inside a cinderblock to free one of the chicks that had fallen in the hole. More little blessings!