Lemonpepper was my favorite chick from last year’s surprise hatching by Crazy Toni. So when she disappeared 3 weeks ago I felt bad. However, one day during feeding I spotted a bedraggled Lemonpepper come sprinting out of the tall grass and grab some food.
Hmmm. I suspected the dear was hiding a nest. Sure enough, today she brought out seven chicks! They are so cute!
That splayed tail means “No one come near my babies!”
And don’t you love sunflowers?
*Lifts eyebrow at teeny sunflower picture* Strange. 😉
Watch out, Rooty, you are getting a bit close!
Lauri's Blerg 
How darling. Gorgeous photos. Looks like Toni’s chicks are as smart and wily as she is!
Toni must be a proud grandma…it’s hard to tell…she seems a hen of very little brain. 🙂
GREAT captures of the hen, chicks and Rooty! I love sunflowers, too, but those FOWL photos turned out super 🙂
Thanks, mt! 🙂
Clever Lemonpepper! She inherited her mama’s stealth gene. I hope you don’t have a bunch of roosters in that bunch.
No doubt there will be roosters, Laurie. But from last year’s batch of ten, only three survive. They are rather wild…so they kept going out into danger and something got all of them except Lemonpepper and two roosters, Clove and Cinnamon. I’ll have to post the boys’ photos soon!
Holy crap…it looks like there are eight chicks in that picture! 🙂
Yep, I count eight babies too! I wonder where she was nesting: too often the eggs get eaten by other critters when they’re laid outside of the coop.
Did you ever figure out what was after the chickens earlier? Last time you mentioned it, I think you said it might have been a coyote.
Your garden seems to get lovelier with every season. The sunflowers are so brilliant, you could probably find your flower beds in the dark!
Lemonpepper’s sister, Bonnie, disappeared earlier this summer. I was hoping she would turn up with chicks….but something apparently stumbled upon her on her nest. 😦
There is some really tall grass along the back 1/3 of the goat yard, so I know Lemonpepper was hiding her nest in there. I am worried about where she will take the babies at night now that they are hatched. If she is too spooked to take them in the goat shed something will get them. Sigh. It’s a fine line between feral and domestic. I stayed away from them all afternoon/evening so she might feel comfortable enough to take them into the goat shed for the night. She was a lot more trusting of me when I brought her and the babies food and water earlier today.
I am assuming whatever has been eating chicken food has been a possum or a raccoon. The coyotes really are intelligent enough to stay away except for passing through. We have caught several raccoons and possums in live traps.
My “gardens” are pretty darn overgrown. But I don’t mind. I have no neighbors to complain about the weeds! I just get pictures of the pretty flowers! 🙂
Lemonpepper is the best name. What an adorable (brood?) I still envy your yard. I adore sunflowers – they’re almost like people standing there, guarding the house. I think they’re good for the other plants in the yard, too!
She’s adorables, what a good mum! Chickies makes the sweetest little peepie noises! Auntie Carley had a shipment of French hen chihcks delivered to the library once and kept them warm in her office, under a lamp. everyone in the Library ran up to peek at thme, all day long!
i can’t believe you have a little bantie roo named Rooty! An ex -bf had a littld smart alecky banty that we named Rudy! He’s so pretty!
I must be speeding. Overuse of exc!amat!on points up there…^^^ Next thing I’ll be typing everything in CAPS.
I don’t get the eyebrown reference, larui! help me.
I posted the pics and that one turned out to be thumbnail size. That’s why I raised an eyebrow at it! I must have hit a wrong clicker. But, I couldn’t be bothered to correct it! Lazy lazy lazy! 😛
I allllllways overuse !!!!!! I’m insaaaaane…
Squeeeeee! They’re adorable!
Oh how cute! You sound like my neighbor Donna with all of the animals. I don’t how either of you keep up with them all!
What a squeeful batch of surprise chicks! They look so fuzzy soft!
Stay safe, mama Lemonpepper!
SQUEEEEEEEEE!!! Look at their cute little chicken fuzz!! *dead from cute*
I thought Rooty WAS Rudy! You’ve been calling him Rooty?
Well, I called him Rooty cuz he is a Rooster. But it sounds just like Rudy…and I really prefer the Rudy spelling! I just haven’t ever written it before.
the babies are SO CUTE!!!! 😀
cute cute cute!
Yay! floofy baby chicks! I think I see 8 fluffballs too. All different colors. I hope she manages to keep them safe. Maybe she’ll let you domesticate them a bit more than Toni did
Moar wild cheeck-ons!
Do the cats not go after the chicks?
The three adult cats aren’t interested at all in the chicks. They barely hunt for much of anything anymore. The three kittens would go after the chicks, I am pretty sure. I kept all the kittens in last night. Today when I got home from work Darwin was out while I fed the chickens. All eight babies are still there!
Darwin would look longingly at the chicks and then look at Lemonpepper and think “um…nope, I don’t think so”…..I still didn’t trust him and carried him back inside with me.
What a precious picture of Lemonpepper with her chicks!! Such a nice late summer surprise. The picture of the sunflower is amazing. I love your comment to the rooster on the last picture. Great post!
i am KO’d by the chkn cuteness!!!!
Squeee! Sooooooo pwetty! Both the chicks and the sunflower! Word!
I wish I could feel teh fuzziness through the screen. 🙂
And sunflowers…gotta love them!
Adorable Chickens! I love to see photos. As kids my Mom (and the kids, me included) kept Banty chickens…right in the middle of town…they were sort of difficult to manage in that setting!!!