Life without Mom

Penguin, the mother hen who was so faithful to her eggs and chicks, made a dramatic transformation back to a regular egg-laying hen this week. She laid her first egg in three months and now chases her chicks away. Here's a photo of them on their own.

Update: She's getting quite mean -- even tackling them to peck them if they get close to the food. I'm having to put food out in multiple places. This can't go on for much longer...

Don't let a chicken get this close to your eye!

I was happy that this guy jumped up on my shoulder when I was in the coop so I tried to take a photo of  "us".  Just after I snapped the picture, he pecked me right in the eye. It still hurts!

Update on chicks

The chicks, pictured here with their mother, are almost two months old  now -- they run so fast that its hard to get a picture unless they're eating. Four are Black Copper Marans.

The one on the left is a cross between a Maran and one of the red hens  that the breeder had on the property (we wanted 6 eggs and he didn't have enough from the Marans). This was the little yellow chick that we helped hatch -- see previous posts).

It looks like we'll have 2 females to keep and 3 roosters to eat or sell.(I only want to sell them to someone who wants this breed, not someone who's just going to eat them.) Black Copper Marans are known for their dark brown eggs. They'll also get pretty black, copper and green feather colouring when they mature.