New Life on the Farm

Last year we ordered baby chicks and attempted to raise them.  It was a first for us and it was catastrophic at best, we lost lots of them.  Too cold, to windy, to rainy, not enough food, water levels to high, you name it we lost chicks to it.

This year when one of our hens sat on our wooden egg and wouldn't get off, we decided to place real eggs under her and see if she had her motherly broody instincts in tacked.  Broodiness is often bread out of chickens, cause who would want a mama hen to sit around for some 30 days not laying eggs, besides a machine can do her job.  A month worth of potential egg laying was lost, but five baby chicks were gained, and she takes much better care of them then my attempt last year.  She keeps them safe from all of the elements that I couldn't, and she teaches them the ropes, something I didn't do as her mother.  I'm excited to support natural instincts on our farm, and to have a mama hen taking care of her chicks instead of me, she has and is doing a much better job then I did, imagine that.