Chicks Galore (but one less hen)

Our chicks continue to grow in their new outside abode and the mother hen returned to the flock apparently without any feathers being ruffled but it didn't last.

She seemed to be broody again one morning but I threw her out of the nestbox and she trotted off. It's almost a shame when you think of lovely clutches of chicks like this one in the Kerikeri car park but her eggs weren't fertilised once we'd moved on our roosters.


She started sitting again (or maybe it was the other hen - I'm not entirely sure) so we locked them out of the nest box. Sadly when we went back to open it up at night and let the hens back in to roost, there were only two out of the three chickens waiting.

We've walked the boundaries and poked about the bush but there's no sign of her. At least there's no pile of feathers and no possum licking its lips. Maybe she'll reappear when she's good and ready or maybe she's put all her belongings in a little spotted handkerchief and gone looking for somewhere with streets paved of golden corn.