The chickens have free run over our 3 acres (but sometimes like to wander to our neighbors' yards - sorry Kim and Mark!) One of their favorite places to hang out is by the kitchen door. When they hear the door open they rush towards the porch, because it often means that kitchen scraps are going to fly over the wall. Enjoy your treats, little chickens!
The chickens and the fruit trees share space. This is usually good, because the chickens enjoy scratching and pecking for bugs under the trees, eliminating pests while simultaneously distributing their signature brand of fresh, organic fertilizer. A disadvantage is that they will occasionally harvest the fruit before I get to it. When they are so cute, it is hard to get annoyed at their enthusiastic claim for their fair share.
One of the most fun tasks of having hens is the daily gathering of eggs. The chickens are kindly treated, so they don't mind my reaching under them even while they are actively in the process of laying. I make sure to pet them and talk with them, thanking them for eggs, if I gather while one is in process :)
Quality of chicken life is the primary focus for both the flock and for us as keepers of the flock. When a hen wants to become a mother, she will go broody and sit on a clutch of eggs. Every hen that wants babies will be supported in her wishes. If she is a new mom, and especially if we don't need to increase the flock size, I will let her keep just 2 or 3 eggs to hatch. If she is an experienced mom, I will let her keep up to 8. The eggs she is keeping to hatch are marked and will stay under her in the nest. Every day that I go to check eggs I will reach under the broody hen and remove the unmarked eggs. After 3 weeks all the viable eggs hatch, and she will have 1-8 baby chicks to raise. In the video you will see that one of the eggs is beginning to hatch. Most of the others will hatch in 1-2 days.
This is the same hen a few days later. She hatched her eggs, resulting in several chicks. Since she is such a wonderful and experienced mother, I went to the feed store and purchased a dozen pullets (female baby chicks.) That night I slipped the feed store pullets under the hen, and the new chicks bonded with the chicks already there and the mom overnight. The following morning I moved mom and all of the babies to a separate coop where they could enjoy some privacy and freedom from the other chickens. When the baby chicks were about 2 months old they and mom were integrated into the rest of the flock. Since the coops shared a chicken wire wall and the mom was a long standing member of the flock, they were assimilated with little issue. Mom watched over the chicks for another month or two until all the babies became fully independent.