07/03/2025
Surprise Chicks- Lessons Learned
Last Thursday, Ian went to go feed our little mongruels (aka our chickens) some dinner when our pops this Black Sumatra hen and nine little fluff balls behind her. This was especially a shock considering she had been in the coop every night, since we free range we try to keep track of how many we have and every night our numbers were right. Well, what do you do? She wouldn't bring them in the coop, just close enough for them to get food and water and to go back to her spot in the woods. We tried to entice her to bring them in before night fall, but they were all gone. We prayed all night that they would survive. The next morning at about 10 she decides to bring them back to the front of the coop like nothing happened. That evening we did unfortunately lose four from a predator while we were gone. After that we told Big Mama that her and her babies needed some place else to go. We got out our handy dandy homemade brooder box that's near our door and set the babies in there. Ian picked her up and showed her where the babies were and she hopped right in and hasn't left them since. Needless to say we now have chick fever and decided to leave a few eggs in the nesting boxes, Big Mama's sister hen (another Black Sumatra) has been sitting there for quite some time, on everybody's eggs. We'll keep yall posted!
