A Surprise in the Loft

Most of our hens lay their eggs in their appropriate place in the egg boxes. However, every once in a while we find a nest of eggs in an odd location.  It's always a shame to find them, because you don't know how old they are, so you certainly can't eat them.  One of the favorite 'secret places' for them to lay eggs is up in the hay loft in the top of the barn.  Although it is ten feet up in the air and even though chickens aren't exactly the most graceful flying bird, they figure out how to get up there and lay eggs.

It is for this reason (and also to keep them from flying over the perimeter fence), I take a pair of shears, grab a hen, stretch out one of her wings.

And clip the feathers off of that wing almost all the way down to the skin.  It isn't pretty, but it doesn't hurt them and clipping the feathers on one of the wings like this keeps them off balance so that they cannot fly up into the loft and lay their eggs or fly over the fence.

With a sizable flock of birds, though, it is hard to make sure that you've clipped every single bird's wing.  Unfortunately, sneaky birds with unclipped wings still find a way to evade our attempts to stop them and get up into the loft an lay eggs. Those broody birds sit on the eggs because they want to hatch out some babies.

About three weeks ago when our niece and nephew were visiting us from Texas, they discovered a Barred Rock Hen sitting on a nest of 12 eggs up in the loft.  The nest was hard to see as it was nestled in behind all the bales of hay.  She fluffed out her feathers and made menacing noises to discourage us from coming closer.  We had no idea when the eggs were laid, so we didn't know when they would be hatching.  Every few days we have been checking on her.  No chicks yet.  I began to wonder if maybe the eggs weren't fertile.

This afternoon Russ came and told me that he climbed up in the loft and the hen had 3 little chicks hatched out so far.  I climbed up and threw a handful of rice for the hen to eat and I noticed one of the little chicks came out from underneath her.

Soon three little chicks popped out.  The two on the right are fluffy and the one on the left has fuzz that is still a little wet.  It must have just hatched out not long ago.

As the momma hen moved aside to eat rice, I took a picture of her nest with the three chicks that have hatched and the 9 eggs left.  The hen got back on top of her chicks and eggs and we'll see if any other chicks hatch out in the next couple of days.  There is a good chance that those 9 eggs were laid later and will hatch out later.  However, there's also a chance that those eggs were not fertilized and won't hatch.  We will keep checking on the momma hen and her little brood.

The other thing Russ asked me about was "How are the chicks going to get down from the loft?"  That's a good question as it is a 10 foot drop from the loft to ground level.  Somehow they do it.  We had another hen last year that hatched out 3 chicks from up in the loft.  We didn't move them down, they came down on their own.  I can only assume that the little fluff balls just jump down onto the soft hay and it doesn't hurt them.

Another surprise from up in the loft.  New baby chicks - always a welcome addition to our little barnyard.