The intrepid Buff Orpington hen continues to do an excellent job. She's been taking her brood of seven chicks all over the barn, and has been letting little stand in her way. The chicks, for their part, are sticking close and not getting lost. (We've not had such good luck in the past with ducklings).
This morning, she had the brood all the way up a slope, in front of the barn. It was windy and chilly this morning, but the large red wall and southern exposure made for a nice little heat island. How she knew to take her chicks there, I'll never figure out. And she's had them there all morning, scratching around looking for food (yes, I put some feed down for them as well).
There's nothing quite like walking back and forth from my office building to the house, and looking over at the barn and seeing this:
Next up, we're going to give some goslings to a broody goose and see what happens. We've been getting the goslings off to a good start under heat lamps and with high protein feed, but I'd like to get them out in the next week or so. That should make for some interesting video, so stay tuned.
3 comments:
What a serene moment in the day! Can you tell me why the chicks are all different colors? Thanks,
Marcia
PS..I sign as "anonymous" because I don't recall my Google account info.
Marcia -
Good question about the chicks. We have roosters of several different breeds in the flock, and two or three different breeds of hen laying eggs. When it was clear we had a broody hen on our hands, we simply gave her a bunch of randomly-selected eggs. We had no idea what was going to come out. But that makes it kind of fun, I think.
Posting as "anon" is fine; you'd only have Google account info if you had a Gmail account, Blogger account, etc.
How I miss my Buff orpingtons! what great hens they are. sigh
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