Raven and her peeping egg

Well, Mama (Raven) didn’t hatch out any more eggs and eventually left the nest with her two littles. We were hoping for a few more chicks this year, so we went to our local Family Farm & Home and picked up a few extras to sneak under her and hope she’d claim them as her own.

We had a great time picking out our seven little babies, a few Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, and a couple of Bantams. We've always wanted to see how Bantams interact with our other girls. That night, we waited until dark when Raven was nearly asleep and quietly made our way to the coop. We managed to tuck all seven under her and remove the seven eggs that hadn’t hatched. She was not happy about that, but we got it done.

When we came back in the house with the eggs, I heard a peep. I looked in the box...no chicks, but we definitely heard it. One of the eggs had started to pip! We could hear her peeping from inside the shell! We quickly identified which egg it was, woke up the kids, and we all watched her start her journey into the world.

We rushed the eggs back out to Raven, and she pulled them under her along with the new babies. A few days later, we spotted her proudly showing off all ten chicks on her back, under her wings, and darting around the run.

We’ll be expanding the run soon since we ended up with more chicks than planned, but for now, they’re absolutely adorable to watch.