ManOverBoard
Chirping
- Apr 30, 2023
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So this post is a bit of a follow up on our last one 'They've all gone mad! Whole flock broody'
This morning I went in and took away the most fought over nest box. All the girls seemed surprisingly less crazy this morning all until one sweet little Australorp laid an egg. She made herself a little hidden nest spot in the corner laid it, happily made some sweet noises about it, and began trying to sit on it. We made the command decision to remove our separate mini coop in the big coop as the chicks we were incorporating seem to get on just fine with all our crazy broody hens.( Climbing all over and under the big girls standing/eating in the big girls food bin, bombing around in general with nothing but stern looks from the big girls when the little roosters pick a feather) HOWEVER, removing the mini coop exposed our sweet Australorps little nesting spot, not that the other girls weren't already harassing her. So I picked up her egg and placed it in one of the remaining nest boxes... apparently a bad idea because our big buff Orpington alpha hen claimed it immediately. She was our first to go broody and has been very sweet with us, but the poor sweet black Australorp who laid they egg was so heartbroken. She stayed right next to the nest box and kept trying to get a glimpse at her egg, whenever the buff noticed her peaking over the edge she would peck her hard on the head, the Australorp would bow her head behind the wall of the nest box for protection. And the process would repeat. The rest of the girls were busy vying over the other nest boxes, but these two were both dead set in sitting on the one egg. We tried getting a dummy egg going in a different box and tried both girls on it both up and moved back to the real egg. And then our buff just plain got dangerous, she started cornering and furiously pecking our little Australorp and drew blood, breaking the tip off our Australorps beak. We immediately removed all eggs and the box they were fighting over as now it had blood on it, and removed our alpha buff to our outside aviary we had made for our parrots some years back.
As is the aviary could serve as a broodybreaker I think... However with some adjustments it might also serve as a separate space for a broody and some eggs.
So the question is...broody or the beast?
Who would be the better candidate to set some eggs. One mom is so sweet and petite and loyal to her egg even at risk of injury to herself but is recovering from some minor feather loss from old rooster and has some pale comb spots going already from being broody, the other is ruthlessly protective, but in full feathering and bright red comb despite broodiness.
(As a side while assessing our hurt hen, she spied some fledgling wren babies that ,to add to the mornings chaos, decided today was the day to jump from the nest and occupy our bottom deck entrance. She , our Australorp hen, immediately started to seek out the babies, the buff hen could have cared less. )
We have eggs in the incubator we'd love to slip some day old chicks under someone.
We also have other crates to use as broody breakers within the main coop.
Any thoughts? Who would you pick to be a momma?
A pic of our alpha buff in the aviary. (Old coop in back being dismantled Could also be turned into separate space for mom and babies.
This morning I went in and took away the most fought over nest box. All the girls seemed surprisingly less crazy this morning all until one sweet little Australorp laid an egg. She made herself a little hidden nest spot in the corner laid it, happily made some sweet noises about it, and began trying to sit on it. We made the command decision to remove our separate mini coop in the big coop as the chicks we were incorporating seem to get on just fine with all our crazy broody hens.( Climbing all over and under the big girls standing/eating in the big girls food bin, bombing around in general with nothing but stern looks from the big girls when the little roosters pick a feather) HOWEVER, removing the mini coop exposed our sweet Australorps little nesting spot, not that the other girls weren't already harassing her. So I picked up her egg and placed it in one of the remaining nest boxes... apparently a bad idea because our big buff Orpington alpha hen claimed it immediately. She was our first to go broody and has been very sweet with us, but the poor sweet black Australorp who laid they egg was so heartbroken. She stayed right next to the nest box and kept trying to get a glimpse at her egg, whenever the buff noticed her peaking over the edge she would peck her hard on the head, the Australorp would bow her head behind the wall of the nest box for protection. And the process would repeat. The rest of the girls were busy vying over the other nest boxes, but these two were both dead set in sitting on the one egg. We tried getting a dummy egg going in a different box and tried both girls on it both up and moved back to the real egg. And then our buff just plain got dangerous, she started cornering and furiously pecking our little Australorp and drew blood, breaking the tip off our Australorps beak. We immediately removed all eggs and the box they were fighting over as now it had blood on it, and removed our alpha buff to our outside aviary we had made for our parrots some years back.
As is the aviary could serve as a broodybreaker I think... However with some adjustments it might also serve as a separate space for a broody and some eggs.
So the question is...broody or the beast?
Who would be the better candidate to set some eggs. One mom is so sweet and petite and loyal to her egg even at risk of injury to herself but is recovering from some minor feather loss from old rooster and has some pale comb spots going already from being broody, the other is ruthlessly protective, but in full feathering and bright red comb despite broodiness.
(As a side while assessing our hurt hen, she spied some fledgling wren babies that ,to add to the mornings chaos, decided today was the day to jump from the nest and occupy our bottom deck entrance. She , our Australorp hen, immediately started to seek out the babies, the buff hen could have cared less. )
We have eggs in the incubator we'd love to slip some day old chicks under someone.
We also have other crates to use as broody breakers within the main coop.
Any thoughts? Who would you pick to be a momma?
A pic of our alpha buff in the aviary. (Old coop in back being dismantled Could also be turned into separate space for mom and babies.
Interested to see what other have to say.
