I read somewhere that a first years hens chicks have a low survival rate, compared to every year after. I passed a hen this morning laying in the bar ditch with her head flat in the dirt. I got out of the truck and walked back to look at her thinking she had been run over. At about ten feet she got up and putted off a short ways. She was laying on these newborns, probably a day old about the size of tennis balls. When I drove off she came back and rounded them up and led them off the road.