Early Spring in the Garden and Chicken Coop

A Gardener's Early Spring

"Mud, flood, blossoms, and babies signal the arrival of spring..." is an excellent way to anticipate and welcome the start of every gardener's favorite season. 

Quote and info adapted from one of my favorite sources, The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner: What To Do & When To Do It by Ann Larkin Hansen.

From Candling to Hatching Baby Chicks

So Many Chicks in 2020

The year 2020 had many of us locked in our homes looking for projects to occupy our time. It turned out that some of our chickens found themselves in the same situation. We had a few ladies who went broody and wanted to be mamas. Little did we know how many chicks that year held for us.

This post contains graphic pictures and videos of chicks hatching and newly hatched.

Planning Ahead

In a previous post, on the joys of hatching chicks, I chronicled hatchings from 2019 where we allowed nature to take its course. With the craziness of 2020, and those previous girls still too young to lay, we decided to increase our flock by purchasing 6 more layers, not knowing our girls had many more chicks planned for us.

(6 new Isla chicks purchased March 2020)

Not the Only Chicks

We thought these would be the only babies we'd have on the homestead this year. However, our mamas from the prior year must have found themselves looking for more to do with their time.

Gals Going Broody:

March - May Hatchings

I always cave in when the mamas want babies, so I decided to allow them to hatch some more. 

Unfortunately though, my spacing was limited in the barn because the new Isla babies were staying in the makeshift maternity ward. I decided to convert our empty rabbit hutch into a makeshift maternity ward.