This is a long story but thought you might like to hear it.
I am fairly new to chickens and have 6 hens and a roo. One of my hens went broody 2 weeks ago so we took her out of the chicken shed and put her on her own in another shed. Everything was fine for the two weeks until another hen(in the main shed, decided she was broody too. We waited until night and took her into the other shed with broody number 1. She created quite a lot and didn't seem to like her new bed. We have broody number one in a little pen on her own so all we had to hand was a large cardboard box. We turned it on its side and placed the second broody in this. Within second she was out of the nest and walking all over broody number 1. SHe refused to go back. So...I know it's a long story... we then thought we would put number two in the same pen, it's quite big, and leave her for the night. We checked on her an hour later and she seemed settled.
I got up and went to work this morning only to get the following e mail, accompanied by pictures, from my husband while I was at work. (I think he must have been bored)
Hi Mandy,
There has been some "eggcitement" in chicken land this morning, resulting in much anxious clucking and wing flapping. Only one of the speckled hens now sits on the nest; with the original mother hen claiming everything for herself. At the first opportunity, the pretender to the throne, ran flapping and screeching out of the shed. Domesticity and motherhood is obviously not on her long term agenda. However, we must pose the question, did she jump, or was she pushed?
What evidence is there for "fowl" play? Last night there were two nests, each containing at least six eggs. This morning as the photographs illustrate, there is one nest, containing fourteen eggs! "Detec-chicks" who have been "combing" the area, have so far "laid" two theories.
1. Did the original mother hen "hatch" a plot to steal her sisters eggs, and then get her to help her to move them from one nest to the other by offering to share the sitting process. Once the pretender had been duped, did she then mercilessly exile her from the nesting box. We can't say for certain, but there was a lot of evidence dropped on the shed floor, that smelt of fear. This theory is possibly "clucking" at straws a bit, unless we are dealing with a very sophisticated "henemy".
2. The popular theory is that "egghausted" by her sisters late night rant and raving, when she was moved in to the nesting box yesterday, and not "eggsactly" enamoured with having to share her deluxe apartment, she roasted her fellow chicken, "chucked" her out of the domicile, and then stole her eggs.
The one thing that is still puzzling the "eggsperts", is how can a chicken move six eggs a distance of two feet, and position them perfectly in her nest. Perhaps in the future we should consider "eleggtronic" surveillance. There is however real confusion over the future egg hatching dates, but on the up side, the Chicken Ladies lackey, doesn't have to build another nesting box.
More from Chicken Land as it happens!
So now she has 14 eggs to look after.
I just though that it was funny but would also like some advice.
Chicken number 2 has now decided to sit on another clutch of eggs in the first shed. What shall I do? The first broody's eggs now have a due date of 1 week away mixed with eggs due in about 19 days.
I am fairly new to chickens and have 6 hens and a roo. One of my hens went broody 2 weeks ago so we took her out of the chicken shed and put her on her own in another shed. Everything was fine for the two weeks until another hen(in the main shed, decided she was broody too. We waited until night and took her into the other shed with broody number 1. She created quite a lot and didn't seem to like her new bed. We have broody number one in a little pen on her own so all we had to hand was a large cardboard box. We turned it on its side and placed the second broody in this. Within second she was out of the nest and walking all over broody number 1. SHe refused to go back. So...I know it's a long story... we then thought we would put number two in the same pen, it's quite big, and leave her for the night. We checked on her an hour later and she seemed settled.
I got up and went to work this morning only to get the following e mail, accompanied by pictures, from my husband while I was at work. (I think he must have been bored)
Hi Mandy,
There has been some "eggcitement" in chicken land this morning, resulting in much anxious clucking and wing flapping. Only one of the speckled hens now sits on the nest; with the original mother hen claiming everything for herself. At the first opportunity, the pretender to the throne, ran flapping and screeching out of the shed. Domesticity and motherhood is obviously not on her long term agenda. However, we must pose the question, did she jump, or was she pushed?
What evidence is there for "fowl" play? Last night there were two nests, each containing at least six eggs. This morning as the photographs illustrate, there is one nest, containing fourteen eggs! "Detec-chicks" who have been "combing" the area, have so far "laid" two theories.
1. Did the original mother hen "hatch" a plot to steal her sisters eggs, and then get her to help her to move them from one nest to the other by offering to share the sitting process. Once the pretender had been duped, did she then mercilessly exile her from the nesting box. We can't say for certain, but there was a lot of evidence dropped on the shed floor, that smelt of fear. This theory is possibly "clucking" at straws a bit, unless we are dealing with a very sophisticated "henemy".
2. The popular theory is that "egghausted" by her sisters late night rant and raving, when she was moved in to the nesting box yesterday, and not "eggsactly" enamoured with having to share her deluxe apartment, she roasted her fellow chicken, "chucked" her out of the domicile, and then stole her eggs.
The one thing that is still puzzling the "eggsperts", is how can a chicken move six eggs a distance of two feet, and position them perfectly in her nest. Perhaps in the future we should consider "eleggtronic" surveillance. There is however real confusion over the future egg hatching dates, but on the up side, the Chicken Ladies lackey, doesn't have to build another nesting box.
More from Chicken Land as it happens!
So now she has 14 eggs to look after.
I just though that it was funny but would also like some advice.
Chicken number 2 has now decided to sit on another clutch of eggs in the first shed. What shall I do? The first broody's eggs now have a due date of 1 week away mixed with eggs due in about 19 days.
