Baby hatched

Since we added roosters to the farm, we recently had our first baby hatch.  One of our hens, Blackie, often goes broody.  So when it started warming up and she went broody again, we decided to leave her alone and see what happened.  After several weeks, Dan heard a faint chirp, checked under her and sure enough, a little baby chick hatched. 

We weren't sure what to do.  Would mama know how to take care of her?  Would the other hens peck at the little chick?  We decided to just wait it out and see what happened.  The little chick followed mama everywhere and seemed to be doing just fine.  I finally got out there when the baby was about a week old. 

Here is a day in the life of a baby chick.

Baby likes to stay under mama for safety...




 When mama jumps off the roost, so does baby...

But they have to pause so Rodan, our rooster, can mount mama to make more babies...

After their minor delay, they proceed outside...

And here they roam around as long as they like...