The only child

So after three weeks of sitting on a nest on top of the stone foundation, Emma showed up in the barn today with a total of one chick...

Whaddaya mean you can't see it? It's right there!

See? Legs!

I will work on better pictures later.

There are three eggs left in the nest but apparently Emma is done. She made her little one do a death-defying 9-foot leap off the wall to the barn floor. I had put a kiddy pool full of straw under the area in hopes of cushioning the chick's fall but who knows if it had any effect?

Last summer she surprised us by showing up one day with 11 chicks! We didn't even know she was on the nest that time. This time I knew where she was and was ready for anything. Somehow I think we're going to have a lot left over from that humungous back of chick starter feed we bought yesterday.

Meanwhile, there is a duck nest in their coop, with nine eggs so far. I'm waiting for somebody to start sitting on it. The ducks have been on lockdown in the barn while we are having the outdoor run roofed over (corncrib wiring as the roofing.) We're sick of losing birds to predators. Now we have a massively overbuilt outdoor chicken/duck run that I try to justify by saying it can be the machine shed when we buy a new tractor. Pics to follow. It's ridiculous.

We'll see how little chick does. Then we can play "Who's the daddy?"