Chicken Babies Left Behind

May 11, 2010

We’ve got a number of hens sitting on eggs.  I’ve heard peeping under one hen for a couple of days now.  This morning I checked, and she was gone, but there were 6 little chicken babies left behind.

Three were in the nest still . . .

3 chicks

"Where did our mama go?"

The other three had crawled over into another section, beside another sitting hen. . .

3 chicken babies

"What are you little ones doing here?"

I saw the hen out in the goat and llamas pen.  She had one lone chick following her around, obviously the only one that managed to crawl out of the nest.  I decided to rescue the six chicks, and see if she would accept them following her around also.

I scooped them all up and carried them out to where she was and put them down in the grass.  Then I got behind the hen and scooted her in their direction.

hen and chicks

"Where did all of you come from??"

She checked them over for a little while, and I wasn’t sure she was going to remember they were HERS.  But pretty soon she started clucking, and the little peeps took off after her.

7 chicks and hen

Mama and her baby chickens take off to forage.

Soon all seven of her baby chickens were following her everywhere, through tall grass and even through the llama poop pile.

7 chicks and 1 hen

Where you lead us, we will follow!

I’ve put a little ramp up to the nest, so hopefully the baby chickens can all get back in there tonight. But I’ll doublecheck them to make sure they are all safe and snug!

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