Petty’s babies are getting so big that they are nearly as big as she is, but she is still fiercely being a mama. It’s fantastic to see, but we have this tiny flock of nearly grown chickens running around the driveway and garage. This means we have chicken poop everywhere. Last week, Ron said, “Aren’t Petty’s babies like 8 or 9 weeks old now, old enough to go with the flock.”

I couldn’t remember how old the babies are, but I could see they are big enough to go in with the flock. Petty will just have to stay with them within the flock, but this is a hard thing to do. Petty loves her life living in the front yard and loves being a mama with her little gang. I was said but had to admit it was probably time. Most of our hens will be finished with babies at about 6 weeks. I just counted the weeks and realized Petty’s babies are 10 weeks old!

Still, I’m so worried about the change for her.

Today, I did the deep clean on the coop. It was epic and exhausting, but I made it all super clean to make space in there for Petty’s crate. Tonight, we put the crate in there, and Petty will be able to stay with her babies in the crate at night, but during the day, they will have to be a little gang within the flock.

I think the babies are going to be fine. Our flock is kind, and the babies have been wanting to get into the coop for weeks. In fact, today when I was cleaning, Petty’s babies made a run on the coop and played and played in there. However, I am very worried about Petty. She gets into fights when other hens even get near her babies. She is the fiercest, kindest, most wonderful mama hen I have ever seen. It has been a joy of my life getting to know Petty these last 10 weeks. I can see for sure that she is absolutely at the top in terms of chicken intelligence I have seen.

Oh, and speaking of intelligent chicken, Mary Jane is still doing well. In fact, she’s a little better than she had been. She likes the cooler weather. Today, when I opened the coop back up after the deep clean, she came in and just played and played and even jumped into a high nest box. I was impressed she was getting around so well. That chicken is amazing, and her daughter is really amazing too!

There are times in my life I feel like such a failure. Recently, I have really been struggling with this. I try to remember that I am a work in progress, but sometimes, I feel down that I didn’t do more with my life. I don’t know what that more is. It’s just this feeling. But, as I write these words and think about how lucky I am that I am a human who gets to know Mary Jane and her amazing daughter, Petty, I feel really lucky. What more could I want? I mean, really.