Hen with Ten

As David backed in to the farmhouse parking space there was a back up warning beep when none had been there before.  We were about to stop anyway.  I got out of the car on the mauka side next to the front door to check it out. 

OK kids, we gotta go

Cheep, peep, cheep, peep, peep

A fat brown hen was silently and slowly making her way across the front porch area.  The ten newly hatched chicks were not silent, however.  Their peeps were loud and continuous.  Peep, peep, cheep, cheep, peep, cheep, peep, cheep, cheep, and a peep.  Five light brown and five black.  They were falling down, bumping into each other, and trying to follow mama.  Several went under the board beside the shed and had a hard time figuring out how to get out.  There was a big step up to the shed floor that required jumping/flying.  As they moved, Mama let out a soft regular gutteral sound which I understood to be a way of letting them all know where she was.  They slowly made their way to the back of the shed and then she sat down on the ground next to the compost pile.  Soon all the chicks were settled underneath her feathers.  She sat contentedly for quite a long time while David and I worked in the garden nearby. 

David and I watched her march her scattering, clumsy chicks from the house to through the shed.  She never fluttered or squawked.  She kept them all in sight and made sure they followed her.  Other hens we've seen run away as soon as we are near.  The roosters are a bit more fearless.  This hen was calm and confident and maternal.  She looked fatter than other hens around the yard.  I almost wondered if she was going to lay more eggs.

Yes, all 10 chicks are under there.

Under natural conditions, most chickens  lay only until a clutch is complete, and they will then incubate all the eggs. Many domestic hens will also do this–and are then said to "go broody". The broody hen will stop laying and instead will focus on the incubation of the eggs (a full clutch is usually about 12 eggs). She will "sit" or "set" on the nest, protesting or pecking in defense if disturbed or removed, and she will rarely leave the nest to eat, drink, or dust-bathe. While brooding, the hen maintains the nest at a constant temperature and humidity, as well as turning the eggs regularly during the first part of the incubation.

The hen will usually stay on the nest for about two days after the first egg hatches, and during this time the newly hatched chicks live off the egg yolk they absorb just before hatching. Any eggs not fertilized by a rooster will not hatch, and the hen eventually loses interest in these and leaves the nest. After hatching, the hen fiercely guards the chicks, and will brood them when necessary to keep them warm, at first often returning to the nest at night. She leads them to food and water; she will call them to edible items, but seldom feeds them directly. She continues to care for them until they are several weeks old, when she will gradually lose interest and eventually start to lay again.  I am guessing that these chicks are at the most, two days old.

Last week two or three times we heard hens squawking continuously for over an hour.  Mary said they were protecting their eggs or nest from the mongoose.  Well, if it was this hen, she had reason to be protective.  Ten chicks is the most I have seen.  Feral chickens are lucky to raise even one that will survive.  This hen seemed to know what she was doing, so it will be interesting to watch how many she is able to keep alive.

Two days later we drove up the driveway and encountered two more hens with chicks, both of whom did not want to give up the road.  They each only had 4 chicks.  They were black hens, very thin.

I write blogs quickly just to give my impressions and basic information.  However, the following is a quote from Garrett Hongo's memoir "Volcano".  He is a poet who found a whole book.  I love how he describes Hawaii chickens:

"The hens were black bantams, reds, and Japanes whites.  Their feathers sometimes shone iridescent in the Volcano drizzles, their beaks yellow as light breaking through a fault line in the clouds."