I didn't see them myself, but yesterday my husband was going across a low-water crossing near our farm and spotted a hen at the water's edge. When she she decided it was time to vacate premises she scrambled straight up the creek bank, but then stopped and turned around and acted hesitant to continue on into the brush. He said that's when he spotted little tiny darkish blobs running all around below her on the gravel and realized she was waiting on her newly-hatched chicks. I have never had the fortune to spot them when they are this young...usually I get a fleeting glimpse of them while they are a few weeks older and are larger than a quail, or at that gangly goofy-acting "pre-teen" stage where they climb up and down on everything in sight and practice trying to fly while the poor nervous hen paces back and forth popping and clucking anxiously. At that stage they tend to remind me of muppets somehow, with their baby fuzz not quite gone and the feathers not quite in and everything is just a frizzled-looking mess. While they are little chicks though, it's amazing that anything that small turns into a bird that big so quickly, and even more incredible that every passing snake, fox, and lucky predator doesn't have Jennie-O for lunch.

Last year on his way home from work my husband (he's becoming a fan of turkeys) also pulled into the drive to find a hen going across our yard at dawn leading her new brood. THe fescue at the roadsides was heavy with dew and the youngsters could just barely struggle their way through the wet stuff. They must be fairly tough survivors though, because our population is steadily growing every year.