Good Evening Team Broody! 
Howdy Poonam; nice to meet a fellow Aussie in our little thread! I am in Queensland, just outside of Brisbane to be more exact. Great news about Dot becoming broody; hopefully there will be even more bubby pictures in 21 or so days! Nice that we have another first timer. I see you have done your research; that is a lot more than I did, I made the decision to give Cilla some fertile eggs went she became broody and just went with the flow from there; many stressful moments and frantic visits to BYC, Google and of course, Team Broody but we got there! Tee hee at Dot's night vision! And yep, most definitely please keep us updated.
G’Day Coops .. you’ve got to be getting close don’t you or am I forgetting someone?
Hi there Florida; nice to meet you also! Aaaw gee, that’s not a good way to start. Fingers crossed that you have some success. I am kind of shy of the whole incubator-thing; there were stressful moments with Cilla who knew what she was doing; I couldn’t imagine how I would cope with an incubator where I was in total control! Liz's follow up comments sounds hopeful and I look forward to hearing how you go with the incubator; maybe I can allay some of my fears through hearing some good updates from you.
Aaaw Liz, I love reading your updates on how your little family is doing … what a great team they are! I know how you feel with the egg situation; before Team Broody I was getting between 2 and 3 eggs a day depending on who wanted to lay when. Bantams apparently are not every day layers but Dusty does pretty well. Since Cilla has been nesting and now being a mumma and Britney has not laid since September 19th, I am getting 1 egg every day or two and that normally gets scrambled and fed back to them! I did manage to save up a few and boil them, so lunch tomorrow is egg and lettuce sandwich.
Nice to see you both again 16 paws and Zeds Eggs
So, the update on Britney ... I may have misdiagnosed because there is still no egg and while she is still a little subdued she is much improved from Saturday and her tail is back up in the air and she is not straining. I think if she was egg bound she would have gone down hill rather than show improvement. On Saturday before she became poorly, I did see her pecking around in a corner of the garden that she normally does not pay attention to and wonder if she ate something that did not agree with her. Do chickens get upset tummies? Could what I thought was straining have been similar to cramping of an upset digestive system? There is a tree in the locale she was foraging which had some red berries on it; while she normally does not like anything red, maybe she pecked at or ate one of those. Anyway, on Sunday I cut off and threw away all the berries I could see just in case. In summary, I am optimistic that she is on the mend. I have lost two bantams through illness and while I tried very hard, I couldn't save them .. I was really despondent on Saturday thinking that no matter how much I tried to help her I was going to lose another .. maybe and hopefully, that was premature
We had to move the 'ranch' on Sunday because it was getting a bit too much sun and Cilla was starting to feel the heat; so we just picked up the whole thing, Cilla & Co included and moved them to a nice spot under the tree and pretty much in the general area that they all like to forage. I'm hoping that the trees and pots around their new location will also provide them with more protection from Mr Crow who appears to be hanging around. I have also decided that I might just leave it for a couple more weeks before I let them out again; just to give them chance to get that much bigger. The ranch has a nest box attached which has their tray of dirt in it at the moment. It's high sides do not allow the bubbies to jump out when the top is open but Cilla can pop her head out and check out what is going on around her. This evening she decided to jump out but obviously didn't remember how she got out and panicked because she could not get back in so I opened the little door for her and she ran up the ramp and back in. She did this twice more and I had to let her back in through the door. On the fourth try she actually went back in the way she got out and took some little treat that she had found in with her. I'm thinking, OK she has worked it out now. Wrong! she jumped out again; heard them calling for her and couldn't work out how to get back .. I now double as a door person lol!
Otherwise, a small degree of normality appears to be coming back into our happy routine and I am hoping that it continues along those lines. The bubbies are getting bigger every day and are doing their utmost to eat us out of house and home. Cilla seems to be fairly settled and is still being a wonderful protective mumma. I get so much enjoyment out of watching her teach them stuff and when I give her little treats, she shares them with the bubs, but I noted today that she kept some for herself :-D
She seems to be taking a little better care of herself now and I think she is getting back some condition.
OK, that is probably more than enough for now!
Team Broody Rocks! Catchya tomorrow
Howdy Poonam; nice to meet a fellow Aussie in our little thread! I am in Queensland, just outside of Brisbane to be more exact. Great news about Dot becoming broody; hopefully there will be even more bubby pictures in 21 or so days! Nice that we have another first timer. I see you have done your research; that is a lot more than I did, I made the decision to give Cilla some fertile eggs went she became broody and just went with the flow from there; many stressful moments and frantic visits to BYC, Google and of course, Team Broody but we got there! Tee hee at Dot's night vision! And yep, most definitely please keep us updated.
G’Day Coops .. you’ve got to be getting close don’t you or am I forgetting someone?
Hi there Florida; nice to meet you also! Aaaw gee, that’s not a good way to start. Fingers crossed that you have some success. I am kind of shy of the whole incubator-thing; there were stressful moments with Cilla who knew what she was doing; I couldn’t imagine how I would cope with an incubator where I was in total control! Liz's follow up comments sounds hopeful and I look forward to hearing how you go with the incubator; maybe I can allay some of my fears through hearing some good updates from you.
Aaaw Liz, I love reading your updates on how your little family is doing … what a great team they are! I know how you feel with the egg situation; before Team Broody I was getting between 2 and 3 eggs a day depending on who wanted to lay when. Bantams apparently are not every day layers but Dusty does pretty well. Since Cilla has been nesting and now being a mumma and Britney has not laid since September 19th, I am getting 1 egg every day or two and that normally gets scrambled and fed back to them! I did manage to save up a few and boil them, so lunch tomorrow is egg and lettuce sandwich.
Nice to see you both again 16 paws and Zeds Eggs
So, the update on Britney ... I may have misdiagnosed because there is still no egg and while she is still a little subdued she is much improved from Saturday and her tail is back up in the air and she is not straining. I think if she was egg bound she would have gone down hill rather than show improvement. On Saturday before she became poorly, I did see her pecking around in a corner of the garden that she normally does not pay attention to and wonder if she ate something that did not agree with her. Do chickens get upset tummies? Could what I thought was straining have been similar to cramping of an upset digestive system? There is a tree in the locale she was foraging which had some red berries on it; while she normally does not like anything red, maybe she pecked at or ate one of those. Anyway, on Sunday I cut off and threw away all the berries I could see just in case. In summary, I am optimistic that she is on the mend. I have lost two bantams through illness and while I tried very hard, I couldn't save them .. I was really despondent on Saturday thinking that no matter how much I tried to help her I was going to lose another .. maybe and hopefully, that was premature
We had to move the 'ranch' on Sunday because it was getting a bit too much sun and Cilla was starting to feel the heat; so we just picked up the whole thing, Cilla & Co included and moved them to a nice spot under the tree and pretty much in the general area that they all like to forage. I'm hoping that the trees and pots around their new location will also provide them with more protection from Mr Crow who appears to be hanging around. I have also decided that I might just leave it for a couple more weeks before I let them out again; just to give them chance to get that much bigger. The ranch has a nest box attached which has their tray of dirt in it at the moment. It's high sides do not allow the bubbies to jump out when the top is open but Cilla can pop her head out and check out what is going on around her. This evening she decided to jump out but obviously didn't remember how she got out and panicked because she could not get back in so I opened the little door for her and she ran up the ramp and back in. She did this twice more and I had to let her back in through the door. On the fourth try she actually went back in the way she got out and took some little treat that she had found in with her. I'm thinking, OK she has worked it out now. Wrong! she jumped out again; heard them calling for her and couldn't work out how to get back .. I now double as a door person lol!
Otherwise, a small degree of normality appears to be coming back into our happy routine and I am hoping that it continues along those lines. The bubbies are getting bigger every day and are doing their utmost to eat us out of house and home. Cilla seems to be fairly settled and is still being a wonderful protective mumma. I get so much enjoyment out of watching her teach them stuff and when I give her little treats, she shares them with the bubs, but I noted today that she kept some for herself :-D
She seems to be taking a little better care of herself now and I think she is getting back some condition.
OK, that is probably more than enough for now!
Team Broody Rocks! Catchya tomorrow
