This spring we had a hen who hatched out one chick and left the nest with said chick leaving the rest of the as yet unhatched chicks to fend for themselves.  Around here we call this the not-a-great-new-mom thing.  When we found the nest, five more of the chicks had hatched.  We collected up the chicks and proceeded to hand-raise them.  We ended with three of the five surviving.

Now, any time we go out in the yard, we are Mommy! Mommy!ed.  They follow me around when I water the garden.  They show up when I go out to do laundry, feed fish, walk to the car . . . if we’re out there, they’re pretty much super-glued to us.  That’s not a bad thing, it’s even amusing, but trying to take a picture of something in the sunshine can be a bit problematic.