This lovely buff girl has been sitting on a pile of eggs for about two weeks now. She usually doesn't get off of the nest to come eat, but today she did and I got a picture of the eggs she's been sitting on.
I believe some of the other chickens have been crowding her and continuing to lay in the same box. But now the poor thing is confused! When she was done eating with the other chickens she returned to the nesting boxes, but not the one she's been sitting on! The silly girl is sitting on the fresh eggs that need to be gathered! I'm wondering if I should move her over. I'm sure it won't make her happy. She grumbles when we gather eggs from the other boxes and she grumbled at me when I took her picture. She even grumbled at me when I dropped a handful of food in the box with her.
Poor confused chicken!
Update:
Those eggs only have about a week to go, so I moved Ms. Broody back to her box. Another chicken had popped in there to lay, so I had to move her first, and she was all like, "wha? I'm trying to lay here!". Then I picked up Ms. Broody and she fluffed up like a feathered porcupine. Too funny!! She grumbled quite fiercely, but she didn't peck me. I plopped her back in her box and she settled in quickly. Then I plopped the other chicken in the other box and she was all like, "oh, ok, this is acceptable". The broody hen turned her butt toward me and craned her neck around to give me the evil eye. So funny!
Well... what happened? Any chicks?
ReplyDeleteNope. All eggs went past their due date without hatching and the chicken eventually gave up and let us collect them. Most of them were fertilized but had perished at some point during incubation. We had better success with a Rhode Island Red lady later in the season.
ReplyDeleteMine does the same. Gets confused and sits on the wrong nest. Then I get confused and don't know what eggs are which. So I think we need to build a broader hen box. Then she can relax after the chicks hatch too because that seems to be stressful as well.
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