Sunflower Hill Homestead: Twitchy Momma Hen

This year has been full of new experiences for me. One of which, is hatching chicks. I have gotten all of my chickens up til now from breeders, the feed store, or mailed from a hatchery, as chicks ranging from a couple of months to a couple of days old. I can't take the credit, really, for hatching chicks. Miss Idgie did all of the work. She is the only chicken that I have left from the original 6 that I got last year, all of the others having been lost to predators. Two batches of chicks after that were thinned as well, by the same means, and I only have her, Jack (the head rooster), and Lola (the hen that turned out to be a rooster). Two hen disappeared last month, only days before I left to go on a school trip to Ireland, and Idgie went broody the same day. In order to keep her from being "paid too much attention" by the two competing roosters while I was gone, I put 14 eggs under her (adding to the one she was already incubating). Happily she hatched out 11 babies about two weeks ago. I blocked off most of the upper level of the coop for her and her babies, to keep them safe from the roosters because I didn't know how they would react. Idgie has been a wonderful mommy! I go out to feed the chickens, let the "babies" (the 13 week old chicks that are in a separate coop), and check on Miss Idgie, first thing every morning. The past few days I have been noticing her acting a bit strangely. She has been twitching and making odd neck and head movements. I didn't know what to make of this. The last couple of mornings she has jumped out of the coop when I opened the door to feed and water them. She only walked around for a few minutes and then, owing to her babies chirping loudly and panicking because mom had disappeared, she jumped back in so I could close them up again. This morning she really didn't seem to want to go back in. I feel terrible for keeping her locked up and have gone through every possibility that could be making her act weird. Could she have a vitamin deficiency? Perhaps she is going insane... she does have about a dozen toddlers, right? (Haven't we all had those moments? LOL) Could she not be getting enough to eat because the babies swarm her head every time she pecks at something? Maybe she is getting too hot? None of them checked out. Finally today I just couldn't bring myself to force her to go back into the coop, and instead, took her babies out of the coop and directed them toward where mom was pecking around on the ground. I watched her closely to make sure that the other chickens didn't attack her or the babies. Jack, to my surprise, ran directly over to her, circled her a few times, and then walked along beside them, protecting them from anything that might get too close. Idgie, thrilled to be out of the coop, clucked and pecked happily with her babies swarming around her. The first order of business? A dust bath! I had been told and had read that it is best to put seven dust on hens when they start sitting on eggs to keep mites off of them. I couldn't imagine feeling comfortable with putting chemicals on my chicken that I didn't even feel comfortable putting on my plants (it can kill honey bees which are having a difficult enough time recently and I don't like using any kind of pesticide). Dust baths naturally deter mites, but when incubating eggs and being closed up in the coop that isn't possible. It finally struck me! Miss Idgie has mites! No wonder she has been twitching and acting funny. Bless her heart, she has probably been itching terribly! I'm still worried about predators hurting the chicks but I am going to remain vigilant and hope that this is the lesser of two evils. Jack and Idgie are on guard (the proud parents) and I am so very proud of them! Another lesson learned on Sunflower Hill. :)