Yesterday, my oldest came running up all excited from the chicken coop.
“Mom, I think they’re hatching! Come see!”
We snuck down for a look at momma hen, who a few months ago started sitting a nest the very next day after the local coyotes got three of our six laying hens. Gotta rebuild, I guess? Trouble was the eggs were duds.
We used to have a rooster, as I personally love the sound of one crowing in the morning, and because they protect and guide the hens, so I don’t have to. If you watch chickens you’ll see, the hens wander around, pecking and looking down as they scratch and forage for tasty seeds, plants, and insects. The rooster stands near the flock on alert, always scanning around and above for danger. I have lost several Roos to coyotes as they heroically threw themselves between them and the hens while loudly sounding the alarm, “Danger, back to the coop!”
But after the last roo decided my three-year-old was a danger and flew at her and then anyone —including my ex who grabbed it and wrung it’s neck on reflex when it flew at him when he came to pick up our daughter — so into the pot it went, and we have been roosterless since.
But I digress.
So when the hen decided it was time for babies, she parked parked herself in a corner in the coop with a clutch of eggs and trust me, the look in her eyes told me, she was NOT going to let me take those eggs!
I told a friend of mine, whose farmer husband helps me out from time to time with bigger projects, “I don’t know how to break it to her, but she can sit there as long as she wants, but those eggs won’t hatch.”
The next day my friend showed up with five eggs from her place. She has almost 30 chickens, and a rooster. She cooed at the hen as she slipped the old dud eggs out, and the new fertile ones in about three weeks ago.
Yesterday, my daughter and I sat and watched the hen hunkered down in the corner, feathers a bit more fluffed and posture a bit more defensive and “stay the hell away” than usual. All ears. Then we heard it… “peep, peep.”
I can’t tell you how that sound brought such joy to our hearts! After all the trial these past few months, as the world got seemingly weirder by the day, we really needed that moment of lightness. Yay!
I think I heard two, but I didn’t want to disturb momma, and the chicks were tucked safely under her warm belly out of sight. We’ll find out how many there are soon enough, but for now we just want her to stay put on the last few eggs until they all hatch out.
(Nobody is a better momma than a momma hen, by the way! Lucky chicks! I feel sorry for ones raised by a lamp, no momma to fuss over them constantly. )
The rest of the day felt more hopeful, thanks to those peeps. And my daughter had a huge smile for the rest of the day.
Despite what current social norms say, about babies holding women back, I think babies —feathered, furry, or human — actually lift us up!
Trust me, as a woman who has lived in a man’s world, I would much rather be surrounded by cute little faces beaming with love, than sit in a room surrounded by competing and often unethical colleagues who don’t care a lick about me or anything but getting in front of the line, no matter how ruthlessly they do it. No thanks.
As I lay here in bed, typing this on my phone before the rest of the house awakens, two adorable little faces are gazing upon me with love. They are the last two kittens from a group of four feral ones my neighbor rescued out of a long parked and abandoned VW Baja and then brought to me, his soft hearted neighbor who he knew would be happy to bottle feed them and find them homes. Two were adopted this weekend, and these last two will be going to live together at their forever home in a week.
Until then, I am going to revel in their cuteness, and let their constant little baby needs distract me from the cares of the world. Because that’s what babies do, and between them and peeking in on the chicks, I won’t have time to worry about myself or things happening in cities far away. It’s not about me. It’s all about them. What a relief!
Don’t let anyone tell you differently, babies are a blessing and their spark and new life lift us up in a way little else can. Enjoy it!
Hopefully one of those five eggs contains a rooster! I’ll be watching close to see if any of the baby chicks stands more upright and looks up and around, unlike the rest.
What do you think? Please share in the comments! And I hope the news of our new arrivals lifted your soul up, too!
“Peep, peep!”
🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣
Ahhh, I love this, Bloom! 💖
Babies are nourishment to our souls. I make my niece send me a pic of my GrandNiece every day (she’s 5 months now!) and all of us light up like a Christmas tree with every single one. I’ve face-timed with her and sang her to sleep. There’s nothin better 💖
Talked to a man born in 1942 today, and I wondered what was going through his Mama’s heart and thoughts when he was born.
This brought tears to my eyes. I love this. You are a wonderful woman with a wonderful message for everyone. I relate.
Awww Devon, thank you! Peep peep! 🐣🐥🐣💕💕💕
💕❤️💕 Ame, I so agree! Babies are a blessing, not a burden! 💕❤️💕
Aw, Awesome writeup, Bloom!
I agree! Babies are wonderful. 🙂
(side note: our robin babies all grew up and flew away. We feel very accomplished because if we hadn’t secured that nest for the parents, it would’ve blown away long before they were ready)
That’s so awesome Liz! How fun to watch knowing you gave momma a little hand!
We have two blue jays in the tree off out porch that must have a nest. They spend their day divebombing our bewildered cat who can’t understand why they keep buzzing him! Lol. Screeeeech!!!
There is a sense of future in birth. Something new is coming. New life is a beautiful thing. It means that we will continue.
Indeed, TSK! The older I get the more I see how this idea that new life is negative and to be avoided is a path of loss and darkness.
I have also been pondering if part of what’s happening now is the outcome of a whole generation of baby humans being raised from the age of three months basically by a lamp. No wonder they don’t care about anyone or anything, maybe nobody ever cared about them? Hard to say. Still, not a good thing!
Yes, roosters will stand up to anything to protect. I used to feed the chickens at my old house share and put up the roosters in the Bachelor Rooster Quarters at night, letting them out in the morning. We had some predator that knew my schedule and went after the chickens while I was at work. It finally got around to the last rooster who was used to being handled and I liked. All that was left were a few feathers. It broke my heart.
In case anyone wonders if I got mad at my ex for offing the rooster, the answer is no. I thanked him, because I knew it needed doing but was dreading how to go about it. Problem solved!
Yes, those darn coyotes and predators won’t stop once they find how easy chicken are to catch. I lost another hen and am down to two. I like to let them free range, but for their own protection am keeping them in their fenced coop and yard for awhile. Give the coyotes some time to forget..,
And sorry to hear that bear, I know how it feels to find nothing but a few feathers. 😭
He was a good rooster. Never any issue with handling and he had a roosting buddy, a hen that looked a lot like him. No issues with handling her either.
On mothers and babies and orphans and such –
Consider Eliza Hamilton:
A single mother who by her 40s had delivered eight children, a foster mother to one little girl, and the wife of a man who had been orphaned himself in childhood, Eliza was passionate about the lives of children. In 1806, along with several other social activists in New York City, Eliza was one of the founders of the first private orphanage in the city, the New York Orphan Asylum Society. She was there in 1807 when the orphanage laid its first cornerstone, and she was indefatigable in her efforts to raise money and support the society, becoming its director in 1821. She remained involved until her 90s.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2020/july/eliza-hamilton.html
When we babysat the kids they loved to watch the cat in the hat cartoons, their favorite was green eggs and ham. A neighbour lady raised Araucanas so we would visit her to get some green eggs for lunch. When their Mom picked them up they would sing that they had green eggs and ham for lunch ;-D
BG – I love your stories! 💖
Ame
Well they’re both pretty grown up now, the Sweetie is 15 and developed enough to have a couple of boyfriends, the Kiddo is 14, over six feet tall, and needs size 11 skates. Now they’re picking black cherries and canning them with their Mom. Or picking raspberries to freeze to make smoothies in the winter. And braiding elephant garlic to sell, we have so much of it that I cannot grasp how much people will pay for them.
b.g., it just registered with me that you are on Vancouver Island (southern part?), so the things that grow there are probably pretty much the same as what grows around the Skagit Valley. I spent Jr. High and High School a bit south of there. Your stories of cherries and raspberries and blackberries resonate with me. I’ve had my experience of picking all of those for pies and cobblers and canning. Plus plums and pears and apples that had started to go wild on abandoned farms. But never did run across green eggs. Did not know those were real until just now.
All of those things to be picked that you mentioned, familiar from my younger years, and mention of a 15-year-old developed enough to attract boyfriends, also familiar from my younger years, just brought a flood of smells and tastes and memories washing over my mind. Funny, that. Years separate me from all of that. But the right words prove it is all still burried somewhere in my mind, just waiting to be triggered.
RichardP
My wife was a tremendous gardener, and I was forced/encouraged to try to stay ahead of her. The climate here is generally kind, the area is semi rural, small acreages, basically amalgamated villages…most people would be considered somewhat redneck but with a definite environmental outlook. But that is changing as immigrants mostly from “the big stink” aka Vancouver move in. I am glad the kids got to enjoy it as children…and btw, I have showed them two areas with wild black raspberries, and both they and the pooches love them ;-D
LOL I tired serving green eggs to my older kids back in the day because they were insane for that book. Added food coloring to regular eggs
Any rate they refused to eat them, had a major melt down and all of that
Upside is I now know what I’ll serve them for breakfast the next time they’re all over here
Ton
The kids watched those cartoons on a regular time, but they both started to learn to read on the colorful books. They were just little tykes and considered a visit to my neighbor lady as a major exciting expedition because she had chickens and rabbits, large Belgians, but their babies were well, just baby bunnies to the kids. Her chickens were crosses of whatever hens had brooded and successfully raised chicks. Her favorite rooster was a big beautiful bugger that I once saw chase off a sharp shinned hawk but was surprisingly gentle for a rooster.
The flock out my house is just like that
Are those them giant rabbits? Seen a few at county fair’s. Man are those things monsters compared to the ones we hunt
Yeah, those are the ones. Huge, a big one approaches 10 pounds. The only time I got to eat them was after she had canned them, mild, juicy, pretty much about the best chicken sandwich you could get. We traded smoked salmon, and my wife’s dilly beans and mustard bean pickles. Plus my wife’s care package of shortbread, butter tarts, and pie at Christmas. Good neighbors are important ;-D
Ton – did you get / are you getting any of the storm passing by?
Bloom do you know how to sex the chicks?
Females grow wing feathers and tail feathers earlier than the males. Also, you can spread out their wing tips and look at the sprout patterns. Males’ sprouts are all the same length, females’ alternate long and short.
I did not know that Cill, will take a look once mom let me get closer. There are now four chicks and one I hatched egg.
*unhatched
Bloom, if one is four days late, its probably a goner. Maybe you get some luck, but it sounds like you will only have the four. I would highly suggest obtaining another cock, because if you don’t have one, the hens get distressed. It isnt just threats that cocks are aware of, they also maintain the peace in the flock. Hens will sometimes peck each other to death without a cock keeping them in line.
I just saw this and it hit me like a pallet of bricks hitting the ground the next building over.
http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com/2020/07/up-to-28-of-american-women-have.html
We used to have a social contract that put limits on people. This was so we could function. The restrictions came off women, remained on men, and, now, men don’t have much incentive. Who wants to be a father when nearly a third of all American women have children from more than one father?
Yes, this is on topic. It is about babies.
LOL lots of weather warnings lately but nothing to horrible so far.
My evacuation plan is pretty legit these days
Since the thread has gone dead, here is Tomi Lahren’s famous rant on men.
It’s enough to send men away screaming. I hear that Rollo Tomassi did a two hour video dissecting this. He probably went into great detail and it is probably brilliant. Better Bachelor did one that ran twenty minutes and I saw that. His theory is that she dumped her fiance early this year, which he could confirm, and that she tried to monkey branch to a Chad, which he can’t confirm. But all the hostility in the rant has to have an explanation, and that makes sense.
Hypergamy is a two edged sword and women are only now seeing that it cuts both ways.