You'd think it was Spring around here....

....with all the new babies, first the two calves born late in the pasture, now it's chicks. The end of August the little red hen was broody again so I gave her 4 little Serama eggs, my thinking is you can't have too many Serama's. Besides, if there is another rooster, my neighbor girl, Jillian, wants one to replace her's that died last winter.

She was in the blue jay cage, very happily sitting on the eggs, as the days ticked by. A broody hen doesn't take much care so every few days I checked that she had feed and water and removed the huge masses of broody poop, covered in a previous post, it does not need to be addressed again, and left her to daydream.

Sept 19 was the much anticipated Alton Junk Roundup that Kim and I were going to pedal our junk again, this year we were joined by her hubby, Jeff and my sister, Rosanne. Bruce was gone fishing so that week was spent filling our livestock trailer with treasures.

It was a great day, people LOVE our junk!! (I was going to include some pictures of our junk but they are in a different format and for some reason I can't switch them to jpg, but trust me, we had GREAT junk!)

Continuing on, we had a very successful junk sale and I was home unloading what didn't sell when I heard a high pitched peeping. At first I thought it was a bird but then realized it was a chick, could it be that time already?? I beat it to the blue jay cage and there on the ground, where he had tumbled out of the elevated box, was a little yellow chick. He had gotten through the chicken wire enclosure and was frantically trying to get back. Up in the box, the little red hen was also very disturbed but she had three other babies to care for and couldn't leave them to rescue the wayward one. I captured the baby and put him back with the rest of the flock and received 'the look' from their mother.

I think I was forgiven when she had all four back in the nest.

The little red hen runs a tight ship and as soon as I show up, she ushers everyone back to the nest and tucks them under her, away from prying eyes.

"March!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

To get some pictures I had to deploy a diversionary tactic, a special treat as in a red raspberry.

It worked and one little chick watches in rapt fascination as she devours the berry.

"I can't believe she ate the whole thing!"

No, there are only 4 chicks, the unsightly blob is a steaming pile of broody poop she left behind.

This one seems to be a camera hog.

I thought they were all Serama eggs but there seems to be some inter-breeding going on since there are two yellow chicks and three of them have feathered legs. The little red hen and a cochin bantam hen both have feathered legs, I think Larry Jr. and Larry the 3rd are venturing out into the flock and spreading their seed.

Those naughty boys.