The best stories always seem to begin in my kitchen. I was standing at the sink one day trying to get an idea of what to cook for dinner. I just couldn't come up with anything at all!
I decided that I'd go to gather eggs while I tried to brainstorm up an entire meal before my farmer arrived home. So I pulled my boots on and grabbed my egg gathering basket then I headed to the coop
As I walked out our back door I was met by a parade of chickens hungry as could be so, of course, I had to make a detour to their food bag. After pouring out a little food for them I headed back to my destination, the coops. I went to one of our coops and gathered the eggs from that nest then headed to the other coop. When I lifted the roof, the mama hens were still sitting there on their eggs. I smiled as I thought about how bad they must want a baby to sit in the same spot every day for 3 weeks. I gathered a couple of the eggs in the other nesting boxes and was about to shut the roof but then I heard something...
a soft "peep" came from one of the nesting boxes that had a hen sitting in it. I swung the roof back up to see a little face staring back up at me from under his mama's feathers. A baby! A little baby chick! I screeched with excitement. I stared closer as the mama did a "chirp, chirp, chirp" at me.
How beautiful is it to be able to watch a mother hen with her baby? She's so protective of her baby but yet she is so loving to it. She keeps it close under her wing and keeps it warm when the weather gets a little chilly, it's so perfect how she keeps a close eye on the baby and when it gets a little too far she sounds odd an alarm to get it coming back.
I watched her leave the coop and her baby ran closely behind her trying his best to stay near her. Another hen got too close and she ruffled her feathers up and jumped at the hen.
Like I said, she's so protective of her child but it's so beautiful to see an animal love another.
Until next time, Ciao!
- Lady of the Farm
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