She wants to be a mommy

As a mother myself, I can’t blame my chickens who, despite me trying to take all the eggs out of the hen house, refuse to stop sitting on them and trying to hatch a few. It would seem that the instinct to care for ones offspring does not just kick in when they are born (in this case hatch) but long before then. One of my hens escaped from the farm yard weeks ago and made herself a nest in a pile of straw we keep for the sheep’s bedding, so we can expect her 11 little ones to emerge any day now – I will post picks when they hatch. But another hen, who has always layed her eggs in the hen house, one day decided that she wanted incubate and hatch them. Despite me trying to take them all away daily, she refused to leave the nest and has been sitting on 3 little eggs that I left there ever since. Luckily I have been able to con the other hens into laying in the nest box next door by leaving an egg there every day so they think that is always where they lay. So our new mother will also be hatching little ones in about a week and a half – all be it a much smaller brood.
In other news, the excitement about our full dam due to all the good rain we have been having has been somewhat short-lived as later that day I realised that my neighbours badly constructed back wall had collapsed onto my property destroying my top corner fencing and leaving my animals vulnerable to escape or attack from my neighbours 2 big dogs. So emergency fencing operation number.... I have lost count began on Wednesday last week and is still in progress.
We enjoyed a wonderful variety of lettuce, beans, peas and baby marrows in our family meal yesterday and I love giving family and friends the best of our organic produce to enjoy when they visit. Hopefully there is lots more to come in the months ahead.