New baby chickens

Question
I've rented a house that came with chickens!  It has a very large yard and is surrounded by almond/walnut orchards.  These chickens have survived with no care as this property was vacant for 10 months prior to my moving in.  The previous tenant did nothing more than tie an ice chest into a tree for them to sleep in, which they do.
My question-today I discovered babys! There are 7 of them and I'm pretty sure they were just hatched.  What can I do to help the mother out
and help protect them from the many predators around here?
You have probably gathered I have less than zero experience with chickens.  Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!  

Answer
well, if you are able to catch the mom and babies put them in a 6 by 6 foot pen with some cover to protect them from weather. go to a feed store and buy some 20% chick starter, and feed that to them. have the pen covered with wire, or somthing so the mom doesn't fly out and hawks and other birds don't fly in. also they will need a place to sleep, if you can find a outdoor rabbit hutch, and cut the legs off of it, it will work fine, and just have this inside of the pen. if your not able to catch any of the birds, then all you can really do is keep some chick starter around where their favorite places are...just make sure its kept full cuz the other birds will most likley eat it too, which is ok unless you buy medicated feed. also to stop the other birds from eating the chick starter, put out a feeder with 16% layer pellets (in the summer time and 18% in the winter) and hide the chickstarter but make suer they see where you are putting it. if you could catch all of them, put them in a pen which is big enough for all of them, each large chicken needs about 1 by 1 squared foot of room, a little extra is always nice. they will need a house too, they arn't hard to build, you can look around on the internet and find one you like or you can just build it like a shed. they just need some roosts (polls attached to the walls so they can perch on them) and laying boxes, which can be just about anything with hay or staw in it. outside they again are going to need a mesh or something to cover the top of the pen. they need non stop clean water, and feed. you can go to your libary and find some chicken/poultry books there. also search around on the internet. www.google.com is a great search site. if you can't catch the mom and babies, then just spend as much time with them as you can, this way as the grow they won't be scared of people and you will have some lovely chickens.
hope this helps!
sammy