My son and I had just arrived home and he was heading out to the back yard to take care of chicken chores. I was bringing stuff into the house and had just barely made it through the doorway when my son rushed back into the house, saying "Mom! Mom! There's a brahma out and a bunch of babies."
Well, we still call the younger hens "the babies" so I thought he meant an older girl and a few of the babies manged to get out of the coop somehow.
Me: "Oh. Well maybe the managed to sneak out of a window, or something."
Son: "No! There's a brahma and baby chicks outside!"
Well, not really knowing what to make out of this I said "What?" and said I'd go outside.
I went outside and, in the middle of the yard just as nonchalant as can be, was a brahma girl and seven baby chicks.
What a surprise! I stood there for a few seconds, not believing what I was seeing. "How did this happen?" I said out loud. I know full well *how* it happened. I just can't believe we had a hen hatch some eggs out in the "wild."
I told my son to not let the big girls out. It was decided that we needed to catch mama and the babies. Then put them in the small coop so she can raise them without the flock them and possibly hurting the babies.
Catching them was a trip. First we had to wait for her to guide the chicks away from the back deck. Then I rustled up an old fishing net and managed to half-chase them around the yard and catch the babies, one and two at a time. A few managed to squeeze through holes and get away. I forgot that particular net had a big hole in it from when we caught a big Northern.
As I caught the chicks I handed them off to my son and he ran them to the little coop. Mama was starting to freak out a bit; her babies were scattering and she was trying to protect them. My son was able to grab her and she threw a FIT and verbally chewed us out. If hens can swear I'm sure she was swearing up a blue streak.
They are together in the little coop and quite content. The rest of the flock has been hanging around the pen, staring at these little cheeping creatures.
Nature will find a way, I guess. A while back we did have one brahma girl who was acting broody but she was always sitting in a nesting box. If this is the same girl, she was determined to be a mama. In our experience, once a girl goes broody, it's hard to break her of it. She's determined to be a mom, always.
In the meantime, we are all marveling this miracle, wrapped as a surprise. We don't know where she had her nest.
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