Just a little report… Miss Carolyn is doing fantastic with her little peeps, Thing One and Thing Two.

Every morning we check in on them and usually find the little family out in the garden where it’s a little safer.  The sheep, Cody and most of the chickens aren’t out there much, it’s a little out of the way of everyone’s flight plan and well, the hoofies are not allowed in there because they will eat everything to a nub.

It’s just so adorable to see her strutting about and calling to them.  They are like a hive mind, the two chicks.  If one moves to the right, the other does.  They listen to Momma so closely, it’s a little scary.

I wonder if she tells them about all the evil things out there that can eat them.  Because the list is HUGE.  Scary chick bedtime stories make for super obedient children, I believe.

She will occasionally take them out into the middle yard for a show off strut.  The other hens are intensively jealous, they watch and try and get close to the chicks, but Carolyn will not let them within 5 feet of her precious brood.

The funny thing is that we have two other hens now that want to set on eggs.  Mildred has a stash in the ram, Gideon’s shack.  He is very careful not to step on her, all nestled in the back corner.  He snuffles her and then turns around carefully.  He likes hens.  She’s super safe in there.  She has about 7 or 8 eggs in there but I don’t know if they are good or not.  But Mildred doesn’t care, she’s gonna sit on them until they hatch or rot, one or the other!

And now one of the Cuckoo Marans (Dizzy or Lizzy, not sure)  has been trying to monopolize the same hatching box that Carolyn used!  I shooed her out and took the stash of eggs today, but only because we need them for our customers!  I think if she is sitting in there again all day tomorrow, I will take five or six and mark them with big X’s and let her have those.  But I will be taking out the extra eggs that the other hens squeeze in and lay!  This broody fever is getting a little out of control!

We’re going to be building some nice nest boxes for the little coop, so that MAYBE the 20 or so pullets in there will start to get the hint and start laying!  They are getting close for sure!  What they have right now is a little, well, rustic and I don’t think they really like.  We got a little lumber and a plan to make them a nice set of boxes!  We’ll see how that goes.

Just wanted to let folks know how Miss Carolyn is doing!   We keep a good watch on her.  Jessy and I watched her hustle them into the feed room and settle in to one of the empty nest boxes on the floor.  The little guys can’t hop up too high yet, though they are getting better at hopping up over gates and through fences now.  They are growing like little weeds!