Petty’s babies are nearly 13 weeks old. A week ago, we moved the family to the coop, and the transition went very well. I was worried the first night because Petty didn’t sleep with her babies, but we discovered that she would sleep on the roost and then, first thing in the morning, go find her babies and hand out with them all day.
It was the sweetest thing. Every morning, when I opened the little coop door, the babies would dart out first and follow me to their special bowl of food, and within about five minutes, Petty would show up and make sure the other chickens didn’t eat her babies’ food.
This morning, she was slow to get to her babies but still came to them. However, later in the day, I saw little Clara out in the middle of the yard by herself, and when I collected eggs this afternoon (all two of them), Ruby’s baby, who still has no name, was hanging out with one of the Faverolles.
Then, I saw Petty. She was hanging out with Rooster. I dropped what I was doing and ran inside to get her some treats. I am going to miss being so close to Petty, and I am hoping we can stay fairly close if I just keep singling her out. I worry though because she was surely one who blended into the crowd before becoming a mama.
I was so hopeful when I chose Petty to be the mama to our fall babies. She is the daughter of Mary Jane and Rooster, two of the smartest chickens I have ever seen. I figured Petty just had to be smart, and I was right. She’s brilliant, so chill, and I loved that she was wise enough to just let me and Ron be her helpers. Because of this, her babies are not wild and afraid of me, and next year, when we hatch babies, I will hope for Petty to be a mama again. She seemed to handle it beautifully. She doesn’t even look all ragged and stressed at the end of it all like all the other mamas.
I hope Petty’s babies remain healthy, strong chickens. They are doing great so far. And we have four girls for sure and maybe one or two boys. They are such mutts that I can’t tell if they are boys or girls, even at 13 weeks. I guess I know when I hear the crow.
Oh, and speaking of crows, our little black rooster we kept from Ruby’s hatch is doing great overall. He’s so pretty and doing well, despite Dvorak constantly “putting the run on him,” as Ron says. The cutest thing happened though. Because he’s the youngest and just barely over being a baby himself at 5 and 1/2 months, he kept trying to hang out with Petty and her babies when they joined the flock.
At first, I thought he was after Petty, trying to mate with her, but after a while, it became clear he just wanted to be a baby too. Petty just let him hang out because she’s so chill. I could surely learn some life lessons from Petty.
