One of my favorite hens, a pretty little mixed breed with color similar to a Salmon Faverolle, but without the muff, has decided it's time to become a mommy. She's been thinking about it for about a week, the last couple of days she's gotten serious, and is setting tight. She now growls and peck the heck out of me when I try to get the eggs out from under her. Today, she sat all day on an empty nest. None of the others laid eggs in there with her, so she's evidently keeping the other hens out.
A couple of my guinea hens are actually laying eggs inside, in a nest box, this year. So I had some guinea eggs saved up, wondering whether to hatch them or not, decided to let her have them.
I refreshed all the nest boxes with new straw, including hers, after she bit me while I moved her out of it. I marked the eggs, put them in the nest, picked her up again while she growled at me...until I set her on the rail in front of the nest and she saw the eggs. Instant silence. She had a look like, "Eggs! I can't believe it! Eggs! All mine, all mine!" She climbed in, carefully tucked all eleven of them under her, and then spread herself out over them and did the "egg arranging dance", that scritch scrith scritch scrith scritch scritch thing they do with their feet. She settled with a look of pure bliss.
Broody hens are so funny when you first give them a nest full of eggs!
I think she'll be a good mommy. This is her first time to brood, but she was raised by a very good momma hen.
And hen-raised guineas are so much nicer to deal with than the ones raised by their own species....
A couple of my guinea hens are actually laying eggs inside, in a nest box, this year. So I had some guinea eggs saved up, wondering whether to hatch them or not, decided to let her have them.
I refreshed all the nest boxes with new straw, including hers, after she bit me while I moved her out of it. I marked the eggs, put them in the nest, picked her up again while she growled at me...until I set her on the rail in front of the nest and she saw the eggs. Instant silence. She had a look like, "Eggs! I can't believe it! Eggs! All mine, all mine!" She climbed in, carefully tucked all eleven of them under her, and then spread herself out over them and did the "egg arranging dance", that scritch scrith scritch scrith scritch scritch thing they do with their feet. She settled with a look of pure bliss.
Broody hens are so funny when you first give them a nest full of eggs!
I think she'll be a good mommy. This is her first time to brood, but she was raised by a very good momma hen.
And hen-raised guineas are so much nicer to deal with than the ones raised by their own species....
