4 Mamas -- 3 Babies

The days aren't long enough for all I want to do -- just a few quick pictures here: a bearded iris and a shy garter snake like a folded ribbon . . .

I wish I knew what this odd iris is -- a bearded iris? It has the right form -- the three upright standards and the three falls. But it's much smaller than other bearded irises and has, somehow, a more primitive look to it. Does anyone have a clue?

 

And here are the mommas and babies.  If you click on the picture, it will take you to a web album where it will be a little video of them all bustling about.

This is the story: Justin and Claui have four banty hens in their chicken tractor. One of the girls decided she wanted to be a mother and began brooding a clutch of eggs. But, as there is no rooster in with these girls, her brooding was doomed to failure.

So Justin took four eggs from our Ameracuanas -- who share their coop with a fine Buff Orpington rooster that delights in making sure that their eggs are fertile -- and put them under the broody hen. 

Twenty-one days later, three eggs hatched and she was a mama. But the other three hens, several of which had tried to sit on the eggs too, were pretty sure that they were mamas too.

At this point, Justin and Claui can no longer be sure which hen was the original broody. The bantys seem happy to share the chicks. And the chicks always have a mama handy to hide under.