Hatched in the hayloft

A rogue hen from our laying flock found a nice nest in among the straw bales in the third floor hayloft of the barn. Despite the impracticality of her location, we let her set earnestly on the eggs for three weeks in the hopes that they might hatch. There are few things as fun to watch as a batch of chicks and a mother hen.

Hearing peep peeping from above last week, we discovered two healthy chicks, one a blonde Rhode Islander, and the other a striped Leghorn. We barricaded the nest with straw bales to keep the chicks from falling perilously to the ground floor, offered them barley and water, and let them be.

As the days passed and they grew stronger, the hen guided the chicks safely over the stacked straw bales to the third floor loft level.

That lasted a day or so, and then I came to the barn to find one chick on a lower level and the other still above, with Mama flying distractedly between the two floors. I moved them all to the ground floor where Mama Hen bravely fended off the cat and dogs as she led her little chicks to look for food.

Eventually, though, we were able to create a home for them in the corner of the main chicken coop with a cardboard box, a tall bale of straw, and some fencing . The other hens and rooster are quite curious about them, but so far have respected their space.