This may not have to do with the title (Operation Dry Hatch) but there may be some real newbies on here that would like to read this. Back in the day, lol, when most old time farmers had a few of this a and a few of that there was always an old shed somewhere with a bunch our feathered friends. We (our family) had a large lot for them to run in but in the evening we always would let them out to run in the yard and fields just as a special treat. I can remember one time when we had this old barred rock hen and every day she was out of the pen from the other chickens. Dad clipped her wing etc and still she got out. What it was was that she was starting to go broody. After a while dad realized what he thought was happening so one morning he watched her really close and followed her around for a couple of hours till I guess she couldn't wait any longer to lay and she took off out in the field and he followed and found her on her nest in the high weeds. She had already had 8 or 10 eggs in there. Now, after each egg was laid, she would leave the nest until the next day. Those eggs weren't turned until she went the next day to lay her next one. She probably had 15 eggs in there when she started to set. In the early morning hours, we would see her leave the nest when the dew was on the ground and go around picking bits of grass, dirt and bugs. She would go back to the nest and turn her eggs and settle in for a couple or so days till she decided to leave the nest again. Usually every 2 - 4 days. The last couple or so days before the babies started to hatch you couldn't force her off the nest. Dad always said she could hear her babies yeeping in the eggs. Oh my, at the end of the 3 weeks, dad would have a little triangle box thing fixed up and when she came off the nest with the little ones following close behind he would catch her and put her under this little house and have it where the little ones could go in and out but not be dragged to death by the mom. He would leave her under there till the babies were a week or so old then he would just let her run around. Those were the days and the old hens would hatch almost every egg. Sometimes they would set in the nest in the coop so dad would mark every one of her eggs once she started to set then each day he would raise her up and remove any eggs that another hen would go in there an lay if she was off the nest. Gee, writing this is sure bringing back a lot of childhood memories. We had an old mixed dog that stayed with the chickens all the time and when one was out (like this setting hen) he would guard them really close so we never worried about anything getting them. He sure was a good old dog. Just a medium sized Heinz variety but we all loved him just the same.
I hope you folks enjoyed reading this.
Jim
