This is our first year having a backyard flock and we only recently talked about what to do if one of our 10 hens decided to go broody. We decided to let her hatch out a clutch if one chose to do so. About a week ago one of our Cuckoo Maran (raised from chicks from local feed store in February) did not return to the coop at bed check. Next day we search high and low for a tell tale feather pile but no signs of fowl ( ;-) ) play. She was spotted 2 times during the week but we had to run off to work, so we could not watch to see where she ran off to.
Came home from work yesterday to find half of or 80' tree in back yard on the ground and on an old boat we are cutting up. The missing hen "Gretta" was spotted. She was pacing and making all sorts of a scene trying to get into the now mostly covered (under tree top) boat. We thought she must have started a family in there. We did some cutting to open up the boat and found she had a small clutch under of the seats. Looks like about 6 to 8 eggs and a few broken ones. What astonished us is this is one of our only 21 week old chicks! We were sure one of our older hens (18 to 24 months old) would be the ones to go broody on us.
The old boat under our beautiful shade tree, where we found her clutch.
"Gretta" our 21 week mom-to-me, pacing and fussing to get back into the boat.
Her hidden clutch, we added some straw before she returned. Later we could see that she had made a nest with the straw.
So what are the odds any of these incredibly young eggs will make it to chick-hood?
Dan
Came home from work yesterday to find half of or 80' tree in back yard on the ground and on an old boat we are cutting up. The missing hen "Gretta" was spotted. She was pacing and making all sorts of a scene trying to get into the now mostly covered (under tree top) boat. We thought she must have started a family in there. We did some cutting to open up the boat and found she had a small clutch under of the seats. Looks like about 6 to 8 eggs and a few broken ones. What astonished us is this is one of our only 21 week old chicks! We were sure one of our older hens (18 to 24 months old) would be the ones to go broody on us.
The old boat under our beautiful shade tree, where we found her clutch.
"Gretta" our 21 week mom-to-me, pacing and fussing to get back into the boat.
Her hidden clutch, we added some straw before she returned. Later we could see that she had made a nest with the straw.
So what are the odds any of these incredibly young eggs will make it to chick-hood?
Dan