Just recently, I wrote about how one of our hens had turned broody. Well, yesterday, she emerged from her nest in the flower bed with 13 baby chicks. All the eggs had hatched!
They are unbelievably cute.
The mother, Mrs Mills, is a chicken that was born to one of our hens (Hattie – still going strong) 2 years ago. She was one of only two chickens, so to hatch 13 is an unbelievable achievement. That said, she has great place here and actually nested outside the chicken run in the garden.
So far, she has led them round the grass in search of titbits, worms, beetles, any small bug really. Flower petals seem also to be a sought after delicacy.
And then there are the treats left by us, well Nicole more than me – grapes, bacon rind, strawberries and of course, being in Scotland, chips.
Fortunately, the dogs are treating them with respect and of course, their presence keeps the local cats at bay. There’s always a danger from buzzards and crows, but we are doing our best to keep them safe. Including a few hastily erected fences to keep them off the drive and away from delivery vans wheels.
This takes our current tally of hens to 23, so we may have to buy another chicken house. And, of course, we’ll probably have rather a lot of eggs later in the year (assuming they’re not all boys).
In the meantime, lots of cups of tea in the garden 🙂
