We have chickens here at Fantastica, and our style of keeping them is just like most things in my life ~ chaotic, messy, and natural. We have a coop we built a couple years ago out of mostly re-purposed materials and it's held up surprisingly well. I am pretty sure the chicken wire and the fasteners were the only parts that were newly purchased.
During the day we open the door to the coop and let them have the run of the property, and at night we close it back up once they are home to roost. We have a couple of roosters that run around with them and take their job of protecting them just as seriously as they take challenging each other and "lovemaking" 😂, and we get lots of entertainment watching our "wild" birds run the place.
It's certainly not the most efficient way of doing things where chickens are concerned, and of course we lose chickens sometimes to predators, but I am a firm believer in nature and even our birds deserve freedom. The foxes, raccoons and oppossums need to eat too ~ which really only happens when we forget to close the coop door or an occasional hen decides to roost outside of the coop or our main fenced-in yard. The dogs keep the predators out of the yard, so the chickens smart enough to stay close to home are just fine. It makes a bit more work in the garden beds to keep some things safe from the chickens, too...
I am sure some of you other dedicated homesteaders are cringing at reading this intro to my post, but I promise it's worth it!
Recently we got some new hens to add to the flock from a lady who had to get rid of all her chickens. Most of the birds fell right into the routine of things, but you know there's always one in any bunch that just has to do things their own way. I can definitely relate to that sentiment!
I never once saw where she was roosting, and it wasn't for lack of looking. I knew she was laying eggs somewhere, but that also seemed a mystery the first several weeks. We found her sizable clutch of eggs once under one of our outbuildings when I was really scouring looking for them, but she was determined we wouldn't find them a second time. All the kids, my partner, and myself all took turns over quite a few weeks looking for the second nesting site, but to no avail. We even sent the youngest two kids out on Easter weekend searching, with comments about it being a real Easter egg hunt! They were amused and excited at first, but eventually gave up after a valiant effort.
Well, about a week after Easter, I noticed she wasn't around anymore. She wasn't showing up to pick the morsels out of the compost pit, or forage in the yard and gardens. I figured she was one of two places ~ in the belly of a predator, or possibly brooding, which I didn't think would end up well either. I didn't really give it much thought after that, because nature.
We went out of town for the weekend of my birthday, as many of you may have read about on my Earth Day Challenge post. We made it home very late on Sunday night, April 18th (my birthday), euphoric from the weekend but also extremely tired from such a busy weekend. The next morning, I was groggily in the kitchen making breakfast, and as I looked out the window I had one final birthday surprise ~ the hen was back, with 8 chicks in tow!
That's when the real fun began! I didn't want nature to take all the babies, and I wanted to give Momma hen the best chance at being able to do her job. Our resident male "wild" guinea was already harassing her, the cats were eyeing the scene with dinner in mind, and Denis Leary was in on the excitement. The teens and I went out with a plan and some equipment ~ a cage, a large fishing net on a pole, and a box. It took the better part of an hour to catch her and all the babies. I am convinced if someone had made a video of that hour it would have gone viral!
Momma hen had worked so hard to have those 8 babies, I did not have the heart to separate her from her babies. We set up a rabbit cage we have for her and the chicks, and I called a good friend (my "hen-whisperer") to ask questions. She came and said they were no more than 48 hours old, and vaccinated them for me. She said within the week it would be fine to start letting the new family out, and assured me the hen would take them back in the cage at night, and to trust in her as a mother.
The first week and part of the second week, I didn't let them out at all. Then I started letting them out a couple hours, but she kept them very close to the cage and it was super easy to convince her to take them back into safety. Well, dear reader, here comes the contemplation on motherhood.
What I think this mother should do for her babies, is not what she thinks. What I think is safest for them, is not what she thinks. She is unconcerned about the two dogs, the four cats (who kill birds, mice, voles, moles and butterflies with glee), the two roosters, the male guinea, or any of the other 13 hens running around. She seems confident and fearless.
Last week she started taking them everywhere ~ in and out of the yard, to the compost pile, to the gardens, into the woods. She would bring them back at the end of the day and I could just close the door...but only the first few days. She's now decided the place for them to sleep is in a corner of the house, and there is no convincing her otherwise. At first, I thought maybe it was because she wanted the cage cleaned, but that didn't help. I have shied away from force-catching her and the babies- because I have too much respect for a mom making her own mothering choices. I have tried moving the cage to next to where she is, I have tried luring her to take them in with treats, and of course I have kept the cage door open so she can take the chicks to drink out of their water bottle. She is firmly rooted in her understandings and I have had zero affect on her choices.
None of the resident animals are seeming to be a threat to her. She still has all 8 chicks, and it is an absolute joy to watch her mother them and the little train of chicks that follow her everywhere with animation, enthusiasm, and wonder. She is showing them all her favorite spots to eat. She talks to them in different sounds and they respond accordingly. She is teaching them her preferred circuit of the property, and is ever vigilant about her watch over both them and her surroundings. She is their protector, nurturer, teacher, disciplinarian, and even their very bed.
Motherhood is a big job, and it is completely ours to command how we see fit ~ with the knowledge that how we do so will shape the future for another living being. Sometimes what we feel is best for our younglings is the complete opposite of what everyone around us is saying, but when the focus is truly taking care of our children, those choices to go against the grain are often the best choices we can make. It's funny how much I resonate with this hen and her sheer determination to do things her own way, following her instincts and not anything else at all.
When we are open to our instincts, or rather intuition in the case of humans, the difference can be night and day in the future for our youth. We never know what the future holds for our children, but trusting in our own ability to provide for them and teach them can give them the best shot at success once they leave the nest. Teaching them by example and giving them room to learn for themselves under our watchful eye has been proven time and again to be a successful model for mothering. They go out into the world armed with critical thinking skills, an unwavering feeling of solid ground under their feet, self-confidence, and the ability to navigate through whatever life throws at them.
