Not too long after the “incident” with Tony the Rooster, one of our Sussex hens came up missing.
We thought that she had been gotten by a predator – we hadn’t gotten our new rooster yet and we thought she was dinner for a raccoon or fox.
But then we got our new rooster and while everyone was locked in so he could imprint on the coop, Marc thought he saw a Sussex wandering around.
So we wondered if she had gone broody, but looking all over we didn’t see a nest.
Then we went out of town for a couple of days and came back to her leading 10 tiny black chicks around!
They are cute little buggers for sure! We have never had black chicks before!
Mama hen was doing a great job of hiding them at night but she was taking them around the yard during the day and we were afraid that this made the babies too vulnerable.
So we caught them yesterday – mama hen was extremely upset and VERY pissed. Instinct is amazing. But with a sturdy pair of gloves, Marc captured her as well. The baby chicks don’t need mama to survive like us mammals, but we decided to keep them together for a while.
All have been safely relocated to our basement.
Mama sits on her babies and it actually sounds like she is PURRING! Here one baby is poked out as the rest are under her.
So Tony’s legacy lives on. We’ll have to see how many turn out as hens and how many are roosters.
Care to place bets??
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