This poor little mixed up chick. She’s been moved from here to there and everywhere during her short week of life.

It all started when this mama hen decided she was tired of waiting on her last two eggs to hatch, and left the nest with her babies in search of food. (See the little chick peeping out from behind her wing? She has six under there.)

The two eggs sat alone for two days before a little boy discovered them. In his curiosity, he began to crack them open. When his mother (uh-hum, me) realized what he was doing, she quickly rescued the remaining egg from its captor, and snuck it under another hen who was already sitting on a full clutch.

After two or three days, we were all surprised to find that the chick had actually hatched out! I was afraid to move it during its first days, so I left it in the nest. On the third day, I took it from a very protective adopted mama, and put it in the run with the chick’s real Ma.

The black hen was so funny. She cocked her head and eyeballed the peeping little one, and then got close enough to nip it a bit to taste its feathers, as if wondering if it was hers or not. She looked very confused.

After a moment of investigating the new chick, she fluffed her feathers, called her roaming babies, and sat down with them all huddled underneath her.  The baby chick didn’t know what to do, so it just stood a foot away from the hen, peeping alone. I hoped it would find its way underneath the hen with the others, but it didn’t. Feeling sorry for it, and worried it might get cold, I put it back in the nest with the other hen.

For those who don’t know, a hen will leave her nest after about three days to help her chick find food. The clock was ticking. It was time for this chick to get out, but I didn’t want the hen to leave the dozen eggs she’d just started sitting on.

After speaking with a good friend, she advised that the best time to move a chick under another hen is at night. The chick will be covered in the scent of the mama by morning, and she won’t be able to tell it from her others. So, I planned on doing just that at nightfall. But by the time the sun had gone down that night, there was a terrible thunderstorm going on outside. I hated to wait, but I definitely didn’t want to go out in that weather.

The next morning, I went out to check on everyone. When I went into the coop the nest was empty. The chick was gone! There is about a four foot drop from the box to the floor. How did she get out? Did she fall, is she hurt?

I went out to the run where all of the chickens had congregated. Even though all of my Buffs look identical, there was one in particular that was sitting on the ground, all fluffed up and content. I knew she was the broody. I walked over to her, speaking a soft hello. She raised up, feathers puffed out in aggravation, and sure enough, the little chick came stumbling out from under her. It was fine! I picked it up and decided I’d have to put it inside in the brooder with my mail-ordered chicks.

I hoped that in the absence of the baby, the broody hen would return to her nest. And a little while later, that’s exactly what she did.

The poor baby. She was half the size of her new friends. I was afraid they’d pick on her, but they didn’t mind her addition. And although she’s had to scurry through giant feet to avoid being trampled, she’s held her own.

And after settling in, she found her companions to be quite snuggly and warm.

Meanwhile, the guineas in the incubator had been hatching! Last night, they were ready to move to a brooder as well. After putting the three guinea babies in their new, warm box, I decided I might move the baby chick in with them, since they are closer to her size.

I placed the baby chick with the guineas and watched to see what would happen.

Taking one look around the new digs, she quickly decided she did not like this place. She missed her buddies!! She sat herself down, and peeped as LOUDLY as she could. PEEP! PEEP, PEEP!!

I took the hint and put her back with the others. Silly thing.

So, I guess this is where I’ll keep her until she’s big enough to be put outdoors. This is one tough little chick for roughing it through so many transitions! It’ll be fun to watch her grow.

Remember me telling you about my broody hen? Well, the chicks hatched five days ago! Yay! There are two solid black ones, a solid yellow one, and four striped ones. I love the striped ones, they remind me of little chipmunks.

There are seven total, but one little black chick has been sickly from the start. I really don’t expect it to make it through the night, though I’ve tried to doctor it the best I can.

After all of the chicks hatched out, I moved the mama hen and chicks to a doghouse out in the common run with the rest of the hens. Then I surrounded the house and a bit of scratching area with small mesh wire to keep the other, curious chickens away from the babies for the first few days.

Having chicks separated from the rest of the hens is also a good idea because they eat different feed. Chicks and the mama hen will eat chick starter. The rest of the flock eats corn and laying mash. It is very dangerous for chicks to eat laying mash as the extra protein can cause major complications in the growing chicks. And so, it’s just easiest to separate them for now.

I had also ordered baby chicks online before we had a hen go broody. We got 12 Rhode Island Reds, and 13 Black Stars, all hens. Plus, McMurray Hatchery also threw in a mystery “exotic” breed. It’ll be fun to see what that one ends up being!

Anyways, our shipment came in yesterday! We got a call from the post office at 6:30am that they were here. Jerry was sweet and went to pick them up for me.

They arrived in a pretty small box. There was a lot of chirping coming from it as Jerry brought it into the house. I held my breath as I opened the lid, fearful of finding dead chicks inside, as I’ve heard tales of happening to others.

What a relief to find 26 healthy, happy and hungry little babies inside!

We put them in the brooder right away. The chirping woke the kids up, and they all rushed to crowd around the box, super excited to find our newest members.

If all goes well, by this time next year we’ll be up to our eyeballs in eggs. Ha!

Jerry was checking the chicken coop for bees nests today, and just happened to see this hen’s head poking up from the little nook in the peak of the roof.

He walked over to me, as I was planting some celery seeds in the garden, and asked, “Have you seen that little black hen in a while?”

Come to think of it… “No, actually. I haven’t.” And then fearing the worst I asked, “Why?”

“Because she’s up in the peak of the chicken coop. She might be sitting on some eggs,” he answered.

“What?! Let’s go check!!” I dropped what I was doing and went into the coop to see for myself.

I’ve been dying for one of our hens to go broody. It’s so fun watching them hatch out their own babies!!

Shorty that I am couldn’t see way up there, so I had to get a ladder. Sure enough, she was sitting on a bunch of eggs. As a matter of fact, there were 10 eggs scattered around that she couldn’t fit underneath her. And she was sitting on another 10!

This was a real surprise, especially ’cause I didn’t even think this hen was laying yet. She’s been one busy girl!

I hated to bother her, but I needed to mark the eggs that she was sitting on. I put my gardening gloves on, in case she pecked me, and gently picked her up off her nest.

She was plenty angry with me, but she needed to get up and eat and drink anyways, so I didn’t feel too badly.

I removed the 10 eggs she had not been sitting on, and with the help of Jerry and Jada, we filled the spot with fresh hay and placed all of the warm eggs back in a nice, clean nest. I also marked an “X” on each of the eggs in case she lays any new ones in there. That way I’ll be able to tell which ones to remove if there end up being more than 10 again. Ten eggs is a good amount for her to be sitting on, much more than that and her body won’t be able to cover them all to keep them warm.

I’M SO EXCITED!!!

I have no idea how long she’s been up there. At least four days. And I’m kinda worried that the chicks might hatch and fall out of the nest. Do chickens teach their babies to stay in the nest like other birds do? I’m thinking no. Do you think we should move her to ground level?

Anyways, I’ll have to keep a watch on her for the next couple of weeks. I’m hoping she has success hatching!

Jerry has been working on a new chicken coop for us.

I. LOVE. IT.

Remember the old coop?

It worked. But it definitely wasn’t pretty to look at. Plus, it sat smack in the middle of the side yard, and was a real eyesore. I am SO glad to have it torn down!

I love where the new coop is, on the back side of the garden. It’s out of the way, at the edge of the woods, and has a nice sized covered run off the side of it.

This new one is built just like everything else around here. From scraps. Although, we did have to give in and buy a dozen 2x4s and a box of screws. Have you priced a box of screws lately? Twenty bucks!! I could not believe a box of screws costs $20 now. But, that’s how it goes, I guess. Can’t build everything for free!

I really don’t like that triangle piece at the peak of the roof there on the front. Definitely coming down.

Window boxes? Why yes, yes I will.

But I’m having trouble deciding what colors to paint it. I need your help!!

The roof is sheet metal. I think I’ll paint it brown. But what color should the sides and trim be?

Sage with brown trim?

Cream with sage trim?

Pale blue?

White with red trim?

Ugh. I have no idea.

If this was your chicken coop… what would you do to it?

But it has been my experience that it is NOT the best idea to put your chicken run toward the bottom of a slope. (Although, I’m sure it seemed like the right idea at the time.)

And since the chickens completely obliterated any sign of plant growth within their run, they now have the joy of strutting through red mud after a good shower. Of course, we do free range them for the most part, but until we open their run mid-morning, they are stuck in the muck.

I’ve tried to put bedding down for them to walk on in there, but the rain just washes it into a corner.

See? It’s awful. Nothing but mud.

I’ve been working on a remedy over the past two days, which I hope will solve the washed out run dilemma. I dug a ditch along the upper fence-line, and filled it with rocks I hunted around our property. The idea is that this run-off ditch will catch the water and absorb it before it sweeps into the chickens’ area.

Working on finding more rocks to fill her up. Let’s hope it works. I spread a whole bale of hay in there this afternoon. The girls were glad to have dry ground again!

When Spring comes I’ll put the covered raised beds back in their enclosure, and grow more grass or something for them to peck at as it grows through the wire on the beds.

Have you had any trouble with your animal lots getting muddy? How do you keep your feathered (or furry) friends on dry ground?

A chicken moat.

Have you guys heard of this, yet?

Basically, it’s a tunnel of wire for your chickens to roam in, which runs around the perimeter of your garden. It’s like a chicken run that borders your entire garden area. The idea is that the chickens in the moat will catch many of the grasshoppers and other bugs that are making their way into your garden, before they get to your plants.

Is that genius, or what?!

Here’s an example of one I found on Back Yard Chickens. Although it’s very nice, to me it looks very labor intensive and expensive. What I have in mind is taking some sturdy wire fencing, bending it into an arch, and attaching it in tunnel form from the existing garden fence to the ground with yard staples. It sounds good in my head, anyways.

Another thing I love about this idea is that one of the problems I have in our garden is not being able to till right up against the fence… which means weeds take over like crazy all around the sidelines of my garden. If I have a run there, the chickens will make quick work of scratching up these encroaching weeds, and I won’t have to waste any time pulling them out!

Mother Earth News has an article on how to build a chicken moat, you might wanna check out for some ideas. Their plans are more of an open run than the enclosed tunnel that I envision for our moat, but you can kinda get the gist of it.

I’m thinking it would be awesome to have the moat connect to a small run, which leads back into the coop. In the mornings we could let the chickens out straight into the run, they could wander throughout the moat at their will, and go back into the coop to roost for the night. That would be ideal.

Ooooh, I can’t wait to get one of these installed around our garden!!

What do you think? Have you ever seen a chicken moat, or do you have one yourself?