MJ's little flock

[Ribh]

9 minutes later ... well that was not as much stress as I expected

View attachment 2872122

I guess she'll go back to her nest in an hour or so. I'm tempted to mess it up while she's doing other things.

I hope you have better luck than I am. My crate is occupied & everyone is still sitting.

 

[MaryJanet]

I hope you have better luck than I am. My crate is occupied & everyone is still sitting.

Well, she's sitting again but little coop is still wide open.

I think I'll start putting her on the roost tonight and I'll keep the little coop opened up for a few days. Hopefully that'll be enough to trigger her "I'm not broody" hormone.

 

[MaryJanet]

I hope you have better luck than I am. My crate is occupied & everyone is still sitting.

I have it much easier with only four hens and plenty of hen-approved alternative nests.

 

[Marie2020]

Good morning everyone here in Maryjanet's thread

 

[rjohns39]

Good evening folks

 

[BY Bob]

No pictures, sorry. It was over surprisingly quickly and I was thinking BEEEEES!!! BEEEEES!!! so very completely the thought of taking a photo didn't have a chance.

 

[BY Bob]

It was!

Another time I saw a much larger swarm not far from here, on the shopping street where all the people were. That swarm was very impressive.

I have never gotten to see a bee swarm. I'm a little jealous.

 

[BY Bob]

Henry 11 is essentially a lovely rooster. His problem is he has just got far too many hens. He tries his best to keep his eye on the ones that stray towards the goose enclosure and I often see him standing guard, or trying to hackle flash the more stubborn hens into moving back towards thhe rest of the hens.
He seems to know that early dusk is dangerous; foxes, weasels and stoats hunt at this time. The poor light is just enough to give them an extra advantage given the chickens see steadily less well the darker it gets.
He's very tolerant of me and he'll let me give him bits of food to distribute amoung the hens. He'll even take some for himself if I shove the more demanding hens out of the way.
He chest bumps the hens rather than just try to grab them. If they don't crouch he leaves them alone. He gets a bit irriitable at roost time when the hens squable over who roosts next to him. I've been told that a long time ago he used to roost in the coop but the performances by the hens about roosting next to him got so bad he decided that at least outside he could get a bit of sleep.

Sounds like someone needs to hatch him a helper. I think you have someone ready to set. Just saying.

 

[BY Bob]

My sister is allergic to bee stings and freaks out if she sees even one so I get where you are coming from.

Having grown up with her, I have tried to modify my reaction from
"A bee! Run!"
to
""Hello there!"
with varying amounts of success.

(I am not allergic)

Between the butterfly bushes and the smaller bushes in front of the coop there are bees everywhere around the yard. I just slowly walk through them with no trouble at all. Mostly I have bumble and honey bees. Along with lots of butterflies. I planted these things intentionally to help the bees and butterflies out so I can't be upset when they show up.

 

[BY Bob]

We had a swarm move into our maple tree years ago, it was wild to see.

I bet!