hen and chicks

The little brown hen still has her three chicks in tow and remains fiercely protective, launching an attack on any hen that dares to get too close. Even the guinea fowl steps back as she marches into the henhouse calling her brood to follow. Unfortunately, the chicks don’t like walking past the guinea fowl so they dither or try to go under the gate and there is general confusion outside the pop-hole. Then with a flapping of wings the mother hen rushes out, scolding all and sundry as she gathers her chicks and escorts them inside. 

chicks have hatched

The little brown hen has hatched her eggs. She started off with five chicks but two had died within a day  so she just has three left. She's very protective and disappears into the broody box with them as soon anyone goes into the henhouse, so it's very difficult to get a photo.

Little brown hen

 We had a few problems on Friday when two lorries got stuck in Blackley Lane as they couldn't get up the hill, but the snow was cleared from the road  and though it was still a little slippery, the lorries moved off and the traffic jam disappeared.

There is still snow lying on the fields and along the bridleway, but in the yard it has melted away and the hens have decided it's okay to leave the shelter of the hen house. My little brown hen came out on Friday and rather than walk through the snow she flew onto the roof of the barn, where she perched all day and night looking like a weather vane. The next day she crash landed onto the roof of the greenhouse, then perched in an apple tree until she was frightened off by Morris the dog and spent the rest of the day in a hedge. I have no idea where she spent the next night and day, but when I shut the hens up yesterday evening she was snuggled next to the cockerel on the perch looking none the worse for her adventure. Earlier this year I found a fox in the garden with this same hen in its mouth; faced with a woman shouting and waving her arms as she ran towards it, the fox dropped the hen and ran off and the little brown hen picked herself up and went to sit very quietly in the nesting box for two days. Quite an exciting life for a hen.