Chickens!

After four years, chickens have gotten a little old for us.  The kids are tired doing chicken chores and eating eggs.  I'm tired of free-ranging chickens pooping on my porch and laying their eggs in the bushes.  The kids will sometimes leave the eggs in the coop for a week and of course I don't notice because the eggs from the week before are still sitting around.  That's how we got:

Three black chicks and three gray chicks! 

When Mark discovered how long the eggs had been brooded, he decided to go ahead and let the hen hatch them.  That hen, by the way, is the lone remaining survivor from our first batch of chicks.  She hid in the woods the day the rest met the stew pot.  She isn't even laying eggs anymore, but she is a great brooder.
 

You can see how she has her wings spread out over the remaining eggs.

Today when I checked on them, the hen was still sitting on her unhatched eggs while keeping her little chicks close.  The food and water were far enough away that I knew she wouldn't let her chicks get to it.  After I brought the food within pecking distance, she started pecking out bits of food and dropping them right in front of her.  She started making a clucking sound I've never heard before and the little chicks started pecking away!  A few got confused and pecked her comb and wattles.  They were so cute!