Here are the baby chicks on Mother’s Day, May 13. So tiny & helpless and you get a sense of why they call Mama Hens ‘Broody’ hens. She is almost trance-like in her concentration on those babies.

It was exciting to see her hatch them out. I will look forward to seeing what they come out like, since there are different mama and papa breeds all running around here. All of the new babies that she hatched have feathered feet, just like our roosters. I bought four extra chicks at the feed store and slipped them under her the first night. Two Black Austrolorps and two Barred Rock. Just like a ‘gift with purchase’ for her!

Yesterday was a nice warm day and the chickies turned two weeks old. They had their first outing in the barn yard. I was a little nervous to let them out, but mama kept a close eye on them, and they stuck to her like glue. They loved scratching up bugs near the goat & sheep stall! And it was easy to close them in after their jaunt. I just tossed a little corn in their stall and walked closer to them and they went right in!

In this photo you can see they are getting quite a few new wing feathers! These two have a lot of Barred Rock in them! I’ve been having a little fun photo editing with PicMonkey. It is a powerful & free tool that has all kinds of cool filters and capabilities. It’s very intuitive too 🙂