None of the chicken you buy at your favorite store ever get to spend time in the sunshine with its flock. Chicken you buy in stores are almost always hens, and not a single one ever got to flirt with a handsome rooster.

And you won’t find a single chicken for sale which ever got to spend time with its mother. Does it make a difference? It does to the chick, and having a mother gives the chick a great deal of comfort. There’s always a warm place to sleep at night and to take mid-day naps. And mother is always there to protect it.

Normally I don’t let broody hens hatch chicks this late in the year, but this year there are several determined hens. This is a two day old chick stepping outside to catch up to its mother.

And out in the woods is a scarecrow – not to frighten off any crows, but to stop any coyotes who venture too close. I recently saw a news report about scarecrows from around the world. According to the report, in Mongolia scarecrows are used to ward off wolves from flocks of sheep. So we’re putting up scarecrows in the woods to protect our chickens. Our two guard dogs do a great job, but there’s no harm in assisting them.