Today turned out to be a lovely day. It is 2pm, the sun is shining, its a warmish 18 degrees celcius (not bad for Winter), and all the rest of my flock had departed for the paddock to forage. I thought I'd try and get broody to eat and have some water, so I quietly picked her up and took her outside into the sunshine for some fresh air and a little break from the nest.
Well, she saw the layers pellets and hoovered some of those up like she hadn't eaten in days. Which, I guess, is about right. Then she had a huge drink of water, standing there for a good three minutes drinking away, thinking, and then drinking some more.
I'm not quite sure how I should word what happened next. I was sitting there, marvelling at how well she looked today in comparison to the past 3 days, where to be honest she had been looking very much like an old sofa cover, or a run-over squirrel. She sort of cocked her head to one side like she was having a good think about something, and then her whole body went rigid. What happened next was a sight to behold.
Now i should preface this by saying that I have been told about broody poop. I have read of the smell and thought "You weak-willed people, complaining about the smell of chicken poop..." How wrong I was. I had NO IDEA....
She let loose with a poop which had so much force behind it I thought she was about to rocket to the moon! It has it's own side effect "prrrrrffffffttttttt.....!" And what came out was a thick spray of brownish/greenish poop which covered a good 5 inches of soil. Despite sitting six metres away, the smell was INSTANT, and filled the whole yard.It turns out my fears of her exploding were not so far-fetched!
There is truly nothing like it in the world.I now believe 100% for sure that I have a broody bird, and not a sick one!
She had a bit of a stretch and a wander around, and then meandered back to her nest of eggs after about 10 minutes of being out.
Now that I've regained consciousness, all is well with the world.
- Krista
