Pre-broody or just a looney tune?

[gritsar]

Re: SF pullet, nearly 9 months old.

Every morning for the past 4 or 5 mornings when I open the big doors on one of my coops to let a breeze in I spy a SF pullet in a nestbox, the same nestbox every time. Not only is she sitting there, but she has stolen eggs under her. I know she steals eggs because yesterday I saw an EE's egg in a different nestbox (that I was going to collect later), but when I went to collect it was under the SF. I've watched hens steal eggs, so I know how it's done. Not sure exactly how she's getting them up and over the lip of her chosen box without breaking them; but that's neither here nor there. Every day when I go to collect the mornings eggs, this SF growls, puffs up, and bites the fire outta me. Then in the afternoons, this SF comes off the nest and goes about her business.

So, pre-broody or looney tunes?

 

[sourland]

I'm sorry. Broody GPS is stuck on your address.

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

ANOTHER ONE??? I vote pre-broody. I'm sorry? OR congratulations?

 

[Louise's Country Closet]

lol I have a girl who's doing that right now.. definitely trying to go broody on ya!

 

[sourland]

Congratulations!

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

I humbly request photographic proof that this pullet is moving eggs.

Hogging another hen's eggs, sure. Moving them around, of course. Carrying/transporting to another nest over a lip? Umm...

Gotta see that!

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
I have seen it with my very own eyes. My first broody, Buffy, got into the family way in the early summer. Up inside the A-Frame coop, where all the pullets laid their eggs back then. Two nest boxes. She monopolized one. She stole eggs from the adjacent box, which involved moving them up and over the lip of both boxes.

It got HOT in there, so she also moved her eggs out of the nest box into the open area.

That is the green egg just barely visible in the curl of her neck, which later hatched out my first GrandChick.

Then she moved all the eggs back when it cooled down a few days later.

This is just the beginning of the process, unfortunately. She would tuck her beak over the egg and pull back, scooping the egg into her breast, then turn around and let it down where she wanted it.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
It's done just as Linda showed/told it. They tuck them under their "chin" and move them. My brahma girls used to drive me crazy moving golf balls around like that.

 

[nanawendy]

She's a LOONY PRE-BROODY or hormonal adolescent....

 

[Judy]

Quote:
True, I didn't think of that. My gold balls mysteriously move from nest to nest.