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

[drumstick diva]

Please put a leash on Zorro. His eating habits are making me gag big time. We had a dog turn up with mushy brown teeth, he was too young to have dental problems. Then one whiff and we figured out what was going on. Oh ick, I never let him kiss me again. At least it was not broody chicken poo.

 

[gryeyes]

I keep water and feed near her. I'm not sure she's eating, really... but I know she's drinking. She gets up once a day and goes out of the coop, AND out of the run (they all free range in my back yard) and stretches her legs, I guess. There is always one of those horrible broody poop things in the run... so she's GOT to be eating SOMETHING.

However, I do know broodies can and do lose a lot of weight in their "confinement," as it used to be said about women "with child."

Another Day Ten Update
At least ONE of the eggs under Buffy HAS to be fertile! I just checked one of the recent white eggs (laid by Minerva or Millicent, my only white egg layers) and it was fertile! Bullseye and everything! The M&Ms are the rooster's favorite hens... for That Business. (Gonna have to get saddles for them.) He also likes Rebecca, who lays green eggs, so I am thinking of checking one of her eggs, too. There is a white egg, a green egg, and a pinkish-tan egg in the Buffy's clutch.

I'm so jazzed. At least my fluffy Buffy isn't sitting on blanks!

 

[Happy Chooks]

 

[gryeyes]

Day Eleven

Okay, this is the halfway mark. She's still broody, setting on those 3 eggs. I gathered 3 eggs from the nest box next to hers. And one from another coop's nest box. (Where I've moved "her" golf ball and another one I found to use.)

It really worries me that the feed I've left near her doesn't appear to be diminishing. However, I have seen her out of the nest box, out of the A-Frame coop, AND out of the run on two separate days for short periods, so maybe she's eating from the flock feeder. The level in the special tub o' water looks lower, but that COULD be from evaporation - it's been pretty darned warm of late!

Buffy has been allowing me to check under her for the eggs, without pecking me. She DID peck at me the night I actually removed the 4 eggs and returned only her original three. Touching is allowed, taking them is not.

Last night, Minerva spent the night in the coop with the Middles, not with Buffy. And she's laying her egg in one of the Middles' coop nest boxes (next to a golf ball).

The Middles, by the way, are Rhoda the RIR, Shirley the Welsummer, Betsy the BR, and Ellen, a bantam lavender Cochin. They're just about 18 weeks old. Shirley used to have a partner Welsummer, Laverne, but Laverne got caught in a twist in the run fence and apparently died trying to get out of it, a couple of weeks ago. It was SO sad. I discovered her there when I got home from work. I have since re-configured that bit of run enclosure so it doesn't curl back on itself behind the Duck House, where Laverne met her demise.

None of the Littles have learned how to go up the A-Frame's ramp into Buffy's Boudoir. They do spend quite a bit of time downstairs throughout the day, though. There's a feeder there. And a kitty litter pan utilized as a protected dust bath facility. The Littles are all bantam breeds and sleep in the Duck House.

There's Charlotte the Buff Brahma, Lola the Black Cochin, and two Sebrights previously called Alice and Georgia. One, or both, of the Sebrights crowed today. The Littles are all 11, almost 12 weeks old.

Minerva & Millicent are Golden Lakenvelders, and they turned a year old this past March. I bought them from another BYC member in late January. One of their eggs is under Buffy. Then there's Carl the EE rooster, Rebecca the EE (one of her eggs is the other Not Buffy Egg in Buffy's small clutch of 3 eggs), Matilda the Black Australorp, Greta the Black Sex-Link, Lacey the SLW, and Bernadette the Cuckoo Marans. Those eight chickens, plus Buffy, are my original flock members bought on various weekends from a feed store during the month of October 2009.

So Buffy, if successful, will be a young mother of about nine months of age.

 

[Happy Chooks]

The halfway point!

You're almost there! (I mean Buffy is almost there!)

 

[gryeyes]

Day Twelve
Not a whole lot to share about Buffy's status. She's still on her 3 eggs, lets me reach under her body to count them, puffing up and chittering, but not nearly as angrily as she has in the past. I have a 3 day weekend coming up: Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which is nice. When I'm at work, I don't get to see Buffy off that nest during the week at all. I'll try to come up with a special treat for her to make sure she's eating SOMETHING.

Bernadette has started laying again. Rebecca didn't give me an egg today. Either Minerva or Millicent left an egg for me, in one of the Middle's coop nest boxes. I think the other egg I gathered was one of Lacey's.

Carl appears to be wooing me. (In addition to his ladies.) He presented me with a short stick, then a small white rock. Put them right at my feet. I thought that was pretty special.

Alex (formerly Alice) and/or George (formerly Georgia) the two Silver Sebrights crowed again this evening. They hang out together so closely I couldn't see which one of 'em did it. They're still young enough to peep loudly when one gets out of sight of the other. The bantam Buff Brahma, Charlotte, REALLY looks like a dinosaur when she runs. She bounds across the run with long strides. Lola, the black bantam Cochin, is the designated "mother" of the Littles (of which she's a member), and the Sebrights always snuggle up under her when they go to bed at night. Charlotte snuggles next to her.

Zorro - Chicken Killing Dachshund On Probation - chased Betsy the BR into the house tonight, by accident. The back door was open whilst I was watering the yard and the four Middles had taken up an observational roosting position on the back porch bench. They looked so cute perched there, looking around with interest. Betsy flapped her wings as Zorro came up on the porch and startled him. He's been very good since MOST of the chickens are bigger than he is, but he does want to chase the bantams. Anyway, he barked at Betsy's flapping and she fell off the arm of the bench and ran. Right into the house. With Zorro on her heels. I managed to snatch her up from the sofa, where she'd jumped to escape him.

Carl followed us over the threshold, all puffed up, but settled down again when I released Betsy back out on the porch. He hasn't started courting any of the Middles, yet. But they're still HIS girls!

I wonder if he misses Buffy.

 

[4 Love of Baby Chickens]

That's so neat about your broody hen.

I love baby chicks.

I was laughing at your Doxie chasing Besty into the house.

 

[Morgan7782]

lol! That is so cool!! I love reading this thread and keeping watch over each day of her broodiness, always makes me smile! Plus, I get a glimmer in my eye at the possibilities... HAHA. And silly dog, but I understand, every time one of my girls does the wild WING FLAPPING, my dog can't help but look verrrrrry intrigued.

Glad it's gotten a little cooler too!

 

[gryeyes]

Day Thirteen

Minerva was visiting Buffy this evening when I got home from work and checked inside the A-Frame upstairs section. She was standing near the pop-hole in the floor and looked .... guilty.... Buffy let me reach under her body to count those 3 eggs, and there were 3 eggs in the nest box next to hers. Dunno what was up with Minerva.

Everybody else had come running when I opened the back door. Although they crowded around me at the edge of the porch, I still didn't toss their evening BOSS treat out until we were all inside the run. Then I headed for the A-Frame to check on Buffy.

Maybe Minerva was just unsettled by my arriving home from work a couple of hours earlier than usual. (I know the dogs are always slightly startled when I come home earlier than usual. Why not chickens??)

I noticed the chickens have excavated several more nest-like holes in last year's raised garden bed soil, as well as some depressions in the dried, tall grasses I pulled weeks ago but didn't put in the trash. They've been stamping it down quite nicely. In one place where I had piled it around a Deluxe Topsy Turvey Tomato Tree stand, they've built a cushy little chicken cave. No hidden eggs, though. Well, none that I've found - they COULD be very well hidden!

I gathered four eggs from the usual nest boxes. Refreshed Buffy's tub o' water, shook up the feeder so the crumbles looked more delectable. Luckily, Buffy is a hefty pullet. If one of the M & Ms had gone broody, I'd be really worried about weight loss; they're Lakenvelders and much smaller than any of my large fowl chickens. But I still think I'll buy some shredded Monterey Jack cheese to tempt Buffy to eat. (Normally I give shredded Mozzarella cheese as treats, but that's made with skim milk. I think my broody girl could use some calories.)

Hopefully I'll see her off the nest and in the yard some time this weekend.

 

[gryeyes]

Day Fourteen

Okay, we're two-thirds of the way there. Buffy was off the nest and in the yard, being attended to by Carl. He kept bringing her goodies. She looked pretty good; doesn't appear to be wasting away. But I still tossed her some BOSS, which she gobbled up.

Then I started back into the run to go check on her eggs whilst she was out of the nest box. She BEAT me back to it! (There are two ways into the run from the yard, but only one of them is People sized. I close both off at night, but do like having the smaller opening so the flock dynamics don't keep any of the Littles stuck either inside or outside of the run during the day.) Buffy used the Chicken gap and got up the ramp into the A-Frame coop before I got TO the coop itself.

Well, I wasn't about to RUN there. No reason to scare any of the fluffy people.

But there were still 3 eggs in Buffy's nest. I told her she was a good girl, then freshened her feed and water.

One of my co-workers came over this evening to assist my land-lady with some tree trimming projects (one of which is in my yard). He brought his dog and his mother with him. His dog is well-mannered and doesn't chase chickens - although she DOES dig and was VERY interested in all the little depressions the chickens have made in the yard. His mother, Jane, is 90 years old. She and I sat on the bench in my back yard and chatted.

She recognized my Plymouth Barred Rock and Rhode Island Red breeds. It appears she studied them in college WAY back when. Way, way back. I named them all (breeds and names I've given them) as they passed on their chicken-y tasks. My two dachshunds got up on the bench with us, and Jane patted and stroked them as much as they wanted. She was amused by the chickens' names and asked which one laid the green eggs in the dozen I'd give her son (my co-worker) last week. They had also enjoyed some fresh artichokes from my garden; she was amazed at how large those plants grew. I let one of the three plants go to bloom - I love the vibrant purple of the artichoke blossom! - and the chickens have been digging and dust-bathing around that particular plant.

One by one, Rebecca, Matilda, Bernadette, Rhoda, Shirley and even Ellen, the little bantam lavender cochin, hopped to the top of the short retaining walls around my fish ponds to get drinks of pond water. Jane asked about Ellen, ruminating that she "looked like an Asian breed." I told her I also had a broody hen in one of the coops, but we decided not to go bother Buffy just to show her to my guests. The rest of the chickens were mostly busy in the yard at our backs.

Oh, and it's been Millicent, not Minerva, who was keeping Buffy company in the coop at night. Well, she had been, but is now sleeping with the Middles in their coop. Minerva, Carl's other favorite, sleeps on the roost NEXT to Carl at night.

Buffy has the A-Frame all to herself except when the other girls come in to lay their eggs in the nest box adjacent to hers.

I'm hoping that will be a good place to keep any chicks safe, should any of those 3 eggs hatch.