OMG! Broody Mama is a hot mess! She is a good mama , she gets bonus points for that! But, somehow she has managed to hoard some leghorn eggs! Hubby has been checking on her for the last couple of days because my work schedule was a little crazy. Broody Mama won't let him near her nest so he didn't realize thats where the missing eggs were! We just thought somebody was being lazy and not paying rent! I went in this morning and lifted her wing to head count and found 3 eggs!!!!!!So the baby pool/nest got moved to the smaller coop with the toddler chicks. They were out in the run, having a ball dusting themselves, so I was able to rearrange the inside of the coop and Broody Mama seemed to settle in with her babies. We even saw Mama out in the run dusting herself and munching on some grass while the toddlers were hunting bugs. They seemed to be fine with each other! Until......we went to close up the coop. The babies had gotten out of their pool and Mama couldn't seem to get them back in, so I helped her out with rounding them up and she hopped back in the nest and started to tuck them in. I closed all the doors and then started rounding up the toddlers, I had rounded 3 of them up and put them in the coop and all heck broke loose! This ball of angry feathers aka Broody Mama launched herself at the toddlers and had them cornered, luckily by the door, I reached in and shooed them out with Broody Mama hot on their heels. I stopped her, and shooed her back to her nest! After standing there holding the traumatized toddlers getting them calmed down, my hubby came up with a little redneck engineering. We took the 2ft roost ladder out and put in a temporary wall(that we can reach over) , essentially making the coop a duplex. Broody Mama has the back half of the coop and can get in and out using the coop door and ramp ( when we open it). The toddlers have the front half of the coop and use the human door to get out to the run. They each have food and water on their side of the wall. After getting everybody locked up for the night we sat outside and kept peeking in thru the window, Broody Mama had her babies all tucked in and appeared to be asleep. The toddlers were bunched up in the corner by the door, the two Brahmas were on top of the pile, kind of like Broody Mama, protecting the Buffs.
Saying a prayer Mama doesn't try to go over the wall! Hopefully everyones socializing skills will be better in the morning!
Saying a prayer Mama doesn't try to go over the wall! Hopefully everyones socializing skills will be better in the morning!
