My first broody!** Daily Updates* Post Hatch Events

[gryeyes]

I don't know how long she'll keep it up, but Buffy The Vampire Slaying BO has not gotten off the nest today at all. She puffs up and GROWLS at me, open beaked. Buffy is about 8 months old.

She's puffed up before a few times if she happens to be on the nest when I gather eggs on the weekends. (I gather eggs daily, just on weekends I do it a few times a day. Weekdays I only gather when I get home from work.) She opened her beak at me before, too, but never ever growled like that, or put all three behaviors together at the same time. She mostly just grumbled, but let me get the egg(s) out from underneath her. Other chickens use the same nest box.

And she has ALWAYS gotten off the nest after a while, too. This has been all day long.

So I put water and food in the A-Frame with her. She has always gone to the new coop with the rest of the chickens her age, every night. She never used the A-Frame except as a place to lay her eggs, so it's not like she's decided to sleep there "again."

She IS in the nest box that one of the Lakenvelders ALWAYS sleeps in. Hmmmm. I'll have to check a bit later to see if Minerva decides to sleep in the other nest box next to her favorite.....

Come to think of it, NOBODY slept in the A-Frame last night.... Minerva decided to sleep in the coop with the Middle pullets last night.

This will be interesting. Wonder if she'll keep it up for long. Wonder how successful she'll be in hatching the golf ball I know is next to any eggs beneath her fluffy buffiness.

I'll come back to add a photo to this post, tomorrow, if she's insisting on staying broody at least that long.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Oh

(kidding, well mostly) Good luck with her sticking with it.


I got a glimmer of hope for a broody today when I went to check for eggs and my welsummer girl had the pancake look on the nest. And she was screaming at other hens that were coming in. But nope, she laid her egg and popped off the nest. (I figured I'd get a broody now cuz I dismantled the hiding area I built for the Ameraucana's)

 

[gryeyes]

Day Two

Last night, since Buffy was hogging the nest box Minerva usually sleeps in at night (she sleeps on the golf ball but lays HER eggs in a different nest box!), Minerva decided to sleep on the bedding outside the double nest box.

This is in the A-Frame coop, the first one I built. Except for Minerva, nobody stays in it at night - the girls just use it for laying upstairs and everybody utilizes the downstairs for naps, scratching, bug hunting, and eating, as I do hang a feeder below the sleeping quarters. (But I put food and water upstairs yesterday for Buffy.)

Here's the view this morning:

She puffed up bigger and screeched at me when I moved my hand closer.

She actually pecked me, but not all that hard, when I touched her feathers and tried to get my fingers beneath her body. I'm just respecting her wishes, so I didn't insist on gathering whatever she's got in that nest.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a shot of her screeching (which I found adorable, btw) because of the awkward position I had to assume to point the camera in her direction, so here's just another shot of her, pretty much like the first one.

I've marked my calendar to see how long she keeps this up. I'm so excited!

Afternoon Update
She wasn't in the nest on one of my checks, and I saw there were two eggs with the golf ball. I figured she'd given up on the broody bit, but thought oh, well, I'll leave the eggs there until I gather more eggs this evening. Darn.

But she returned to the nest within the hour. She'd left the A-Frame and gone clean across the back yard, though. Do broodies leave for just a few minutes or for a longer period of time, whilst brooding?

The two eggs were one of hers and one of the EE's (lovely green), and since I have an EE rooster, I thought it might be interesting to see how that turned out. Plus her own egg, too.

 

[gryeyes]

Day Three

So far, so good. Buffy is still setting. Last night Minerva again slept just outside of the nest boxes. Buffy gave me the evil eye when I checked on her before I left for work.






Edited to change day count - posted before coffee took effect.

 

[Happy Chooks]

If looks could kill.......

Good luck with Buffy. May she be a great mommy!

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Come on Minerva!!!

 

[gryeyes]

Mrs. Fluffy Puffy :

Come on Minerva!!!

Actually, it's Buffy who is broody; Minerva is the hen who USED to sleep in that particular nest box until Buffy became broody and took it over. Minerva now sleeps in a depression in the pine shavings next to the nest box. But thanks for the encouragement - I'm hoping Buffy will follow through with her new Project.

Day Four
She let me check under her this morning, and there are now THREE eggs (and a golf ball) being incubated under her fluffy gruffiness. Only one of the first two was hers, I wonder if she laid another? I didn't pull them out from under her to look at them. However, I did NOT get the usual green egg from Rebecca yesterday that I expected, and that is the nest Rebecca uses. Maybe Rebecca snuck over there when Buffy was out on her daily constitutional trip. Hmmmm.

This is interesting. Well, at least to ME, it is.

 

[Morgan7782]

That is so cool! I just showed my mom the pictures and post of Buffy growling, and she started cracking up. PLUS she was amazed that hens get so serious when they are brooding. I love how educational it is too! Before I came to this board I had no idea what broodiness in a chicken meant, but this is great information

especially if it happens to a newbie who wouldn't recognize it right away.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Oh, okay .. sorry ... Buffy!!

When are the eggies due?

 

[Happy Chooks]

I wouldn't let any more new eggs get put in her clutch. They'll be on different days of development, and the hen will have to decide whether to let the chicks die and hatch the rest of the eggs, or let the eggs die and take the chicks to eat. I'd mark them all and remove any new eggs every day. The other hens will be sneaking them in on her.