Four little surprises!

Never a dull, ordinary day around here. This morning when I went to the barn to let the lambs and chickens out, I kept hearing a little peeping noise. It took me a while to find it, but there, outside the chicken pen, was a tiny, lonely peafowl chick wandering around! I hadn't mentioned here that the juvenile peahen (her name is now Maybelle...as in the Carter family, Mother Maybelle) has been sitting on a nest for the last month or so because I assumed it would come to nothing. (Mrs. Dandy didn't lay eggs her first year and was not successful at keeping chicks alive for several years.) Maybelle has been sitting on a nest high up in the hayloft, so I went up to see what the situation was up there. She was down on the floor of the loft and when I forced her to stand up, lo and behold, there were three more chicks under her wing! I put the chicks in a basket and lured Maybelle down the steps and into the dog kennel. So now, we are back at the beginning with chicks again! I still haven't figured out how that little bitty chick survived getting down from the loft. It's a long way down! (and then there is the possibility of a bird that small getting eaten by one of the cats!!)

(Sorry about the blurry picture. These little guys are not so good at posing for the camera.)

Hard to believe that chick could end up to be this in a few years. I think we may need to start placing a few of these guys into other farm homes. So, I'm off to the feed store to get chick starter (again!) before they close for the weekend.

Hope your weekend is full of good surprises.