Really, she's quite a weirdo!
She is a year old French Wheaten Maran and she's always been odd! She's 'twitchy.' Even on the roost, she'll twitch and cluck; walking around, she twitches and clucks. But she's also a stinky, casual egg-sitter!
She sleeps in the roost with all the other hens at night but sometimes during the day, she disappears for hours. So I followed her one day to find out where she goes all day and...lo and behold, I find her sitting on a nest! She hid it away beneath some nice, dangerous rose bushes - 32 eggs. I say no way, throw her off that nest and grab every single egg. Some of them were so rotten they were getting dark patches and I could smell them from a metre away but no, she was all too happy to be sitting there atop them!
As I'm getting the eggs, she is racing around the yard screaming nonstop. Twitch, scream, twitch, twitch, scream. All the other hens just ignore her, apparently accustomed to her outbursts. The moment I'm done removing her foul hoard, she's a few feet behind me, twitching and clucking, and immediately back on the nest the moment I leave. I hoist her off, she yells, eats and then gets back on. At night, she's on the roost, happy and clucking. Sometimes, she has a few days off the nest and lays in the usual box with the other ladies, sings the egg song and scratches around...but hm!
Anybody else had a bit of a crazy lady in their flock? I'm now on the hunt for her when I notice her telltale daily brown egg missing in the box.
She is a year old French Wheaten Maran and she's always been odd! She's 'twitchy.' Even on the roost, she'll twitch and cluck; walking around, she twitches and clucks. But she's also a stinky, casual egg-sitter!
She sleeps in the roost with all the other hens at night but sometimes during the day, she disappears for hours. So I followed her one day to find out where she goes all day and...lo and behold, I find her sitting on a nest! She hid it away beneath some nice, dangerous rose bushes - 32 eggs. I say no way, throw her off that nest and grab every single egg. Some of them were so rotten they were getting dark patches and I could smell them from a metre away but no, she was all too happy to be sitting there atop them!
As I'm getting the eggs, she is racing around the yard screaming nonstop. Twitch, scream, twitch, twitch, scream. All the other hens just ignore her, apparently accustomed to her outbursts. The moment I'm done removing her foul hoard, she's a few feet behind me, twitching and clucking, and immediately back on the nest the moment I leave. I hoist her off, she yells, eats and then gets back on. At night, she's on the roost, happy and clucking. Sometimes, she has a few days off the nest and lays in the usual box with the other ladies, sings the egg song and scratches around...but hm!
Anybody else had a bit of a crazy lady in their flock? I'm now on the hunt for her when I notice her telltale daily brown egg missing in the box.
