New arrivals on the farm is always cause for excitement. You all know my love for babies. Yesterday I heard one of my Buff Orpingtons making a different clucking sound (yes, you do start to notice a difference in their sounds) and then I heard the most adorable little chirps. CHICKS!  I ran outside to see mama strutting around with four little black balls of fluff following along behind her. They are so cute!

Last batch of babies she wouldn’t let us near them. It was the first babies she’d had so I assumed she was just being overprotective (although I wish we’d insisted on handling them more because they aren’t people birds now).  I walked to the coop grinning from ear to ear, to let the other chickens out for the day and heard the same clucking and more chirping-but I couldn’t find where it was coming from.

Today however, I spotted her. Our last Buff Orpington strutting along with five babies behind her. I was ecstatic! I ran in the house to get my camera and not only got some shots, but was able to hold a couple of each batch of chicks.

They are sweet and all of them look, and sound, healthy. Sadly, we don’t need another nine chickens running around. Right now we have twenty-two. These make thirty-one. Sigh. And these are just the free range chickens. That doesn’t include the geese, ducks, and chickens that are being raised for meat and breeding.

So, with a bit of a sad heart (in empathy for mama of course), I posted an ad to sell the darlings.