Surprise, Baby chicks!

We had company Thursday night and went out to pet the sheep Friday morning. No problems. We were headed out the back door to water the garden and I heard this very loud cacophony over by the old house. It was baby chickens!!  Lots of baby chickens running all over the place and a mother hen clucking at them all. 

Of course the fireproof baby area has not been created yet.  I just had it cleaned out a few weeks ago. So I went to set it up while Annmarie and Chris snagged babies. I had some extra wood pellets stored in the back and we had baby waterers and feeders plus a heat lamp. But I had torn out some burnt wood and cut some of the wire during the fire event.  So I had to cut a temporary panel out of an old piece of plywood, screw it in and then screw in a row of anchors and use scrap wire to repair the hole in the chicken wire. Annmarie snagged 14 baby chickens in just a few minutes. Chris and I wired the heat lamp in place so it cannot fall into the wood pellets or get knocked down.  We did hang water with little pecker valves but I put a small basin of water in the baby area also. The only thing we did not have we baby crumble food. But as these were new babies they can go 24 hours with no food or water. 

They did just fine and once they were safely ensconced in their area they had no trouble finding the heat lamp. 

As we went to bed last night Annmarie told me she heard a peeper peeping. It was dark and I was tired, plus I could not hear anything. I told her, truthfully, I could not hear anything. If you have ever watched tv with me or listened to my car stereo you will understand.  So this afternoon I was out moving sprinklers and heard another peeper. It was a lone baby with its mother.  I managed to snag it and put it with its siblings.  There are now 15 babies, which  hopefully translates into 8 pullets.  

Tomorrow we are going to work on leveling the old house and putting up a new skirt to keep the dogs in the yard.