Mother Nature Is So Remarkable-Hens Sharing Care Of Baby Chicks

I recently had a rash of "brooding" or "sitting" hens.  I do not have a rooster, so the process of hens sitting for over 21 days without laying any eggs is not only a loss of egg production, but stressful on the body of the hen.  Day and night, almost 24 hours a day, they sit and sit.  Unfortunately for the hen also, we have had several weeks of horrible, hot hot weather.

I  have 3 hens sitting, so I decided to purchase 10 chicks and see how it worked out between them.

It was almost late afternoon by the time I got the chicks purchased and home, I waited another hour so it would be closer to dusk.  But wouldn't the odds be against me.  All three hens had been in their regular setting positions for weeks.  When I brought the bag of chicks into the hen house, only one hen was on the nest, the other two were out eating. (Sorry for bad photos, it is dark in the hen house and those little chicks kept running around)

I grabbed a couple of chicks and put them under the one remaining hen.  She is my regular, nasty, mean, look out she will peck you hen most of the time, but when she is setting, she is darn right vicious.  I put my hand under her with 2 chicks but she ended up drawing blood on my hand from her pecks.  The little chicks loved getting under their new mom,unfortunately she quickly wouldn't have any part of them and pecked at them too.  I quickly grabbed them back before she could hurt them.

By then, maybe the other two hens heard the cheep noise, but they came running back into the hen house and took their regular nesting spots.

Now the next part is darn right amazing for several reasons.  I grabbed 4 chicks and put it under "Speckles" mom.  She gladly and happily accepted them and started her little chicken talk to them.  I went to put a few more under her but she was just happy with the 4 chicks.

Then I took the remaining 6 chicks and put them under "Blackie" hen.  Unfortunately, I put them under her from her front area, and she wouldn't take them.  I gave her a few minutes, and then I put them under her from her rear area and that seemed to work.  She too, made the cluck cluck noises to the babies and all was well. 6 under Blackie, 4 under "Speckles".

I checked on them several times in the night and all was well.  Still got the evil eye from the nasty one, but I left her alone.

The next morning was puzzling.  There were only 9 chicks and the chicks changed mom hens, "Speckles" had 6 and "Blackie" had 3 with them.  I had no idea what happened to the 10th one, 

All went well that whole day after checking on them several times.

The following morning, I counted heads and "Speckles" had 5 under her and "Blackie" had 4.  Weird.  That day, I saw the hens take the chicks out into a small area of the yard to teach them how to forage and to do the chicken scratching.  Interestingly, both hens went together and worked the chicks together.  And the chicks would go back and forth between the hen moms. Sometimes, one hen had all 9, other times, they would split up again.

I believe I have a theory as to what happened is I purchased 5 Cochoo Marans and 5 Black Jersey Giants.  They were hatched and brought together in their respective breeds.  When I purchased the 10, I had them all together and put the chicks under the mothers randomly. They all looked the same to me, black with white spots on them.  When the chicks were trading Moms, I believe they were getting together with their hatch mates.

But now, they are 9 chicks with two Mom Hens!!!  Even at night, the mothers sleep side by side with chicks under neath. So darn cute.

And as to the nasty hen?  Each day, I get bloody hands and pull her off the nest so she won't get sick staying on the nests so long.  She gives me such an evil eye, puffs up 3 times her size and makes the most loud noise.  I tried to complete her nesting instinct, but maybe next time she will be more accepting.

Chicken raising sure is interesting.

Next time I will tell you about my last flower job, a house warming party!!

Remodeling Backyard Furniture; Building New Patio Cover

I have been MIA for a while.  Company coming so Frank and I have been finishing up some projects we had started, but kept putting aside to work out in the fields.

The biggest project has been the new patio cover.  Frank is the master at figuring out what wood he needs and finding the best prices.  He does excellent drawings first; makes his list, and starts stockpiling the wood.  One great source of very reasonable wood is our local Ace Hardware.  A few years ago, they started to carry lumber.  Every so often, they go through lumber that isn't selling; or was a special order that someone didn't take; or lumber that needs to be sold soon.  It is outside on pallets in the parking lot.  About once every couple of weeks, we will cruise by the stack to see what is there.  Even if we don't have a specific need at that moment, if the price is right and the wood is something Frank uses a lot, we will buy it and store until we are ready to use it.

Frank is terrific at taking different sizes of lumber and cutting it down to become what he needs.  It takes more time, but worth the cost savings.

So about 6 months ago, Frank started putting together all the lumber he needed for the patio cover.  The size is 18' x 26', a pretty good sized space.  As he cut the necessary parts, he also primed and painted the wood and then bundled it up into the units needed.  The last part were the slats that are 2" x 2" x 20' long that go across the beams.  This cuts the shade by 50%.  It took him the longest time because there are so many.

Frank started putting all the parts together about 2 months ago and got as far as the top slats.  The patio cover is tall, I wanted it that way for 2 reasons.  One reason is because the house is up off the ground 3 steps and we look out onto our back yard.  Reason 2 is if the patio cover was lower, it would cut into our sight line from inside the house.

We kept trying to figure out a way to get Frank some help in putting up those slats, it is tall up there, dangerous and Frank is not a spring chicken any longer and I was worried about him being up there by himself.  And I couldn't help him.  We tried renting scissor lifts, but none small enough to get into our back yard.  Then Frank thought of our new neighbors, the Hysmiths.  He is a general contractor!!!  They are the nicest and cutest young couple, We rarely, rarely pay someone to come work on our place because either Frank or I usually can handle most that goes wrong or needs repairs.  But this required expertise and strength to work up 12' off the ground, walking back and forth on beams, moving wood around and screwing in each piece.  And it happened to be horribly hot at the time.

Within a few days, that part of the patio cover was done, next was the final touch up painting.  Frank painted a few hours each day before it got too hot, each and every one of the slats.  We have an airless paint sprayer, but with all the yard plants, it being next to the house, all the concrete, it would have taken days to just seal off any area for over spray on the house, etc.

While Frank was painting, I looked for new cushions for our lawn furniture set.  I couldn't believe how expensive cushions had gotten.  Just the settee bottom cushion was $85 plus I needed 4 other chair seats and all the pillows.  Celli, my daughter came to visit with the grand kids a few weeks ago, and we decided to go check out fabric sales.  I was able to find all the fabric I needed at 50% off at

Joann's and also used my app coupon and got one item an additional 10%.  So for less than $50 I was able to get all the fabric I needed to sew the cushions and pillows.

I sewed a chair piping and seat cover each morning before I headed outside to work in the veggie gardens.  I knew there was no rush as Frank was still painting.  I did the cushions first so I made sure

I had enough fabric for that before I made the pillows.  A few pillows I did one color fabric on one side and the other for the back side, so it could be reversed.

They aren't the best, professional job, but they are outdoor fabric, and I can take it off at the end of the year to store for next year.

We can't wait for our company to come next week.  Always a good push to get some projects done.  The peaches are starting to get ripe and I need to seal up bags of the dried apricots.  Always something to do here at Windmill Farm.