# LITTLE CHICK AND MAMA CHICK



## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

*Mama had several eggs, but something got them before they hatched. It had to be a chicken snake because we had her penned up in the hen house. Anyway one little chick hatched. It is about 3 weeks old now. I put a dog crate in the bottom of the hen house and put them in there at night so the other hens can come in to roost. I have to protect the little chick because the hens have tried to get at him and luckily I saw and grabbed the hen and pitched it out of the hen house. Mama was fighting the other hen with all her might. I don't know when I will be able to set them free. But obviously Mama is ready to leave the hen house. When we went to put them in the crate Mama was on the roost and Little Chick was on its way up there. So cute I had to post the following pictures. The first is on the way up and then to bed on top of Mama. Shame we had to crate them, but I can't leave the other hens out at night. Some varmit would get them.*


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## whimsy (Apr 3, 2010)

awww.. what a sweet picture! It must be fun to watch them together like that!


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## waybrook (Sep 13, 2009)

What a good mama she is - and she's lucky to have you to watch out for them...


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## Pixiesmom (Jul 31, 2008)

how sweet!!


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## Anne Streeter (Apr 14, 2009)

Lucille - I forwarded that to my chicken loving daughter. She loved it and said to tell you that the baby should not be with the others for 4 more months. The pecking order thing is nature at its cruelest!! She has some half grown ones that she is housing in a small crate beside the others so that they sort of get acquainted and plans to get rid of the dominant hen (who has stopped laying anyway) before she introduces the 2 new ones. 
We don't know what it chicken snake is but agree it sounds horrible!


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## The Laughing Magpie (Aug 20, 2009)

Lucile that is too cute!


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## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

Two sides of the chicken house are screened only. So the other hens see the little chick already. I guess I am soon going to have to let the Mama out with the rest in the day time. My husband thinks it would be fine to let them both out now. I know from my childhood that there was always a hen with a lot of little chicks around her. The hen would flog anything that threatened the chicks. We have been off the farm to long though. I don't want to take a chance with the little one. We took down the fencing and let them roam all the back yard so there is no protection from Josie Wales either or Rosie for that matter. So four months it is.

A chicken snake is a nonvenomous big snake that takes several forms. Some are called corn snakes, some look and act like rattle snakes and can scare you to death. But they grow big maybe 6 feet and even though they can't eat the hen, they can the baby chicks and eggs. Several years ago, we had a hen and several chicks in a wire crate. The next day the chicks were gone and the hen was dead in the crate. The snake had constricted the hen and swallowed the chicks. I hate them and we kill everyone we find--no capturing and turning loose somewhere else. The only good snake is a dead one as far as I am concerned.


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## waybrook (Sep 13, 2009)

Luciledodd said:


> Two sides of the chicken house are screened only. So the other hens see the little chick already. I guess I am soon going to have to let the Mama out with the rest in the day time. My husband thinks it would be fine to let them both out now. I know from my childhood that there was always a hen with a lot of little chicks around her. The hen would flog anything that threatened the chicks. We have been off the farm to long though. I don't want to take a chance with the little one. We took down the fencing and let them roam all the back yard so there is no protection from Josie Wales either or Rosie for that matter. So four months it is.
> 
> A chicken snake is a nonvenomous big snake that takes several forms. Some are called corn snakes, some look and act like rattle snakes and can scare you to death. But they grow big maybe 6 feet and even though they can't eat the hen, they can the baby chicks and eggs. Several years ago, we had a hen and several chicks in a wire crate. The next day the chicks were gone and the hen was dead in the crate. The snake had constricted the hen and swallowed the chicks. I hate them and we kill everyone we find--no capturing and turning loose somewhere else. The only good snake is a dead one as far as I am concerned.


Amen sister!


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## dodrop82 (May 21, 2010)

What a cute baby chick!!! And I agree...Kill them **** snakes! I bashed a snake in the head with a shovel one time. The significant other chewed me out cause "They eat them **** chipmunks that dig holes by my foundation!" I love chipmunks and hate snakes! So I shall continue to bash their heads if I get the chance!


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## Anne Streeter (Apr 14, 2009)

Lucile, I am afraid to go to bed lest I have a nightmare about chicken snakes!


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## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

Oh Anne I am so sorry. I used to have nightmares about snakes and then I finally got over that. Now I have nightmares about getting old. lol


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## Becky Chittenden (Feb 4, 2009)

We had one of those fake rattle ones in the house a few years ago, a baby, but in the house. We let Thomas, our cat take care of it.


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## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

Becky, copperheads will do the tail thing also. If they are not green and pencil thin or have a ring around their necks, I don't let the animals near. However one of my grandsons at about 5 years old, brought a ring snake into the office and put it on the secretary. She wasn't pleased. Me being me, I thought it was funny, but punished the GS anyway.


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## Carefulove (Mar 20, 2009)

How stinkin' cute is that second pic!


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## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

Finally I am able to turn them out. I missed two weekend trips because of one little chick. But they are with the others now and Josie Wales is not paying any attention to him either. It has been so hot that I have had to fill up the water bowl 3 or 4 times a day and seperating them at night--it ain't worth the eggs. But Larry likes them (chickens) and we mostly give the eggs to family. So hot and dry that he had to move the electric fence up into the yard and around our garden. Can't find any hay for the calves so we keep moving the fence. At least we don't have to mow back there. But he has officially got it up in the city part of our lot. I hope the garbage men don't tell on us.


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## motherslittlehelper (Mar 18, 2010)

Such a cute picture of mama and baby chick. Do these chicken snakes have another name? Thank goodness we don't live in a place with a lot of snakes. They just creep the bejeebers out of me! On the ranch in Montana where I grew up, we heard reports of rattlesnakes on neighboring ranches, but we never saw any. We were always careful in picking up bales out of the field, however, just in case. Saw a few garter snakes. Lots of skunks and badgers that found their way into the hen house. And porcupines. Here, have only seen one teensy snake. 

Hope your chick continues to make it Lucile.


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## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

Linda a chicken snake is not one type of snake--they are a non-venomous snake that averages 4-6 feet long. Some are striped, solid black, or spotted like a rattlesnake. They are called pine snakes, corn snakes, rat snakes, etc. Some farmers like to have them around the bard and grain storage areas so that they eat the mice and rats. Personally I like to see the rats and mice around. lol Anyone of them can scare me to death, but the one that is marked up like a rattler is the one I hate to see. You have to get close to know that it is not one. Course if you are no excited you can tell by the shape of its head, but who can see what the shape is as the hoe is coming down on it? Last week the 11 year old grandson went to the garden to gather the tomatoes for me. He came running back and squealing like a girl. "Granny there is a monster black snake in the garden and he saw me!" Course I knew that he had seen what we call a black racer another non-venonous snake that is so fast that you can't catch it. I had to get a hoe and go to the garden with him, but thankfully the snake was gone. Now I can't hardly go out there for fear of seeing it. My brain knows that it is harmless if left alone, but my heart is scared to death and my feet won't stay still.


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