Cheep, Cheep, Cheep!!!!

Imagine my surprise when I opened the coop today, late I might add, to find 8 new baby chicks and they were running a muck!
I already have 15 this year and I was feeling the stress of the oldest 3 families as they are now getting older and needed to be moved out of the nursery pen. However, they were not cooperating well so it took me a couple of days to get the job done. My normal procedure is to move the mother and baby(ies) as soon as they start hatching by cage to the nursery pen, keep them locked up for a day or so to make sure everyone is bonded and then let them begin the business of growing up in safety and security.
However, silky mom #2 was nesting on the floor of the main coop and they all must have hatched at once because they were all out and running around by the time I got to them today. There were 2 more up in one of the nesting boxes screaming loudly so it was quite a spectacle. Finally 1 and 1/2 hours later I had all mothers and babies where they needed to be. Things were a bit complicated because the nesting box moms were right next to one another and they had each had one baby hatch. Mother hens are very attached to their babies and some will not accept another hen's babies. Other hen's are good sarrogates and will parent all you give them. They are just like people. Anyway, the two mothers in the boxes were not happy about the babies in their nests. So, I switched things around and at last check everything was calm and happy.
As if I am not in over my head enough, one of the mothers abandoned her unhatched eggs. One of the veteran moms jumped on and saved the day so I could get 5-7 more from that batch. The other hen has about the same amount of unhatched eggs and I have yet another hen ready pretty soon on about 8 eggs. I could easily end up with 60 chickens. This is the most I have ever had hatch in one year. Well, there may be a chickens for sale sign at the end of the road this fall.