The Five

Tim calls them The Remnant.

 

We bought their mother- a broodie bantam Phoenix- and all ten chicks a few weeks back on our chicken date.  She was an excellent mother and didn't lose a single one for two weeks.

Until the night she didn't come back at dusk, choosing to roost outside instead.  In the middle of the night she set up such a ruckus I knew she'd attract every predator for a quarter mile.  I went out and opened the door to let them in.  But the sound had carried from her far-flung location and she wasn't there.  I went back to bed.  At 4:20 we awoke to screams and Tim went running out.  It was too dark to see anything.  Then quiet.

We watched for Phoenix all day, hoping.  Five chicks returned to the greenhouse but the other five and Mama never did.

I figured The Remnant wouldn't last a day without their mom.
But contrary to all expectation, more than two weeks later, The Five are thriving.  They stayed in the greenhouse, then immediately around it, slowly expanding their range, mingling with the established flock.  They check themselves in each night with a little assist from Anjali and they forage like pros.  The protection their mother afforded them from the others in the flock has carried over and they are not threatened by the adults.

I've been afraid to name them or write about them or photograph them for fear of jinxing it.
Well, for fear of getting my hopes up again, honestly.

But I'm beginning to suspect that they are going to make it.