Rosie is just a little confused...

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The nests were buzzing today, as the hens are enthusiastically preparing nests and laying eggs as if spring is already here. Among the activities of barred Rock Diana making a quiet nest, Easter-egger Mako jamming herself into a box with red sexlink Sora, and She Who the partridge Rock singing a hilarious egg song the likes of which I had never heard from her before, there was little Rosie, the teeny-tiny bantam Sebright hen, noisily talking about an egg to come and shifting about in the nests of the upper row in the nest boxes.

Having worked what she believed to be the perfect nest into her chosen nest box, she went to work on laying her egg. She chattered and struggled and carried on, all the while beneath her Mako had squeezed back out of the box with Sora and was now making all sorts of distressed noises because, by golly, Sora had stolen her nest box! At last, Rosie's egg plopped onto the straw beneath her, and she took a moment to recover before moving on. That's when things got strange.

In a raging ball of golden-laced feathers, Rosie furiously flew out of the nest box and down to the lower row, where she promptly beat the tar out of Mako. As Mako made a quiet retreat, Rosie returned to the top row of nests, eyed her egg for a moment, and then...

...She crowed. And crowed and crowed and crowed.

Maybe she's forgotten the egg song since she last laid an egg.




(Don't mind the terrible quality of the picture. All I had on me was my cell phone, and it doesn't take video. )

 

[Chickenfan4life]

Loved the story!

I have never had that happen with my girls, but I know ChickenPeep encountered the same thing: her Ebony crowed... what's up with that?

 

[drumstick diva]

Rosie just wanted to do it her way

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Loved the story!

I have never had that happen with my girls, but I know ChickenPeep encountered the same thing: her Ebony crowed... what's up with that? 

Yes, I remember reading about that. You never know.

One of the other goldies (can't remember if it was Martha or Amy) and Vespa, one of my silver Sebrights, have both crowed before, so I guess Rosie was bound to join the club. Also, Biddy-bird, my genetically off speckled Sussex, crows before almost every egg she lays. I have a strange bunch here.

Rosie just wanted to do it her way

I guess so. She went macho on that egg!

 

[gryeyes]

My Silver Sebright hen Alice made a huge ruckus after laying her egg in the small metal tray in a wooden baker's rack (or maybe it's a potting table..) I inherited from my sister which I keep out on the unscreened portion of my porch. It's handy to set bags o' groceries as I unload the car.

She spent some time scratching at the metal to make it nicer -I guess - and turning around for the best spot in that small tray. After she laid the egg, she screeched a LOT about it, standing on the edge of the work surface. Not quite a crow, but certainly more than just the "normal" Egg Song. She went on forever!

I would have taken a picture of that Most Wonderful and Bestest Egg Ever in the tray, but one of my Icelandic girls jumped up there after Alice left and started pecking at it. Egg rescue and redirecting Saffron's attention was more important.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Alice sounds adorable.

I've read that it's not unusual for Sebright ladies to crow, so I guess Rosie was behaving normally? It was still quite amusing. She's never crowed before, although she's always been quite vocal with her egg song.

 

[SarahJaneB]

Aww a great little story, definitely made me smile! Thank you for posting.

 

[gryeyes]

Alice is three years old and her eggs are no longer fertilized, as her husband-brothers Alex and George had to be rehomed. She is one of fifty hens/pullets but the only Sebright now. I have other bantam hens of various breeds, but nothing is as small as Alice. She's too fast for the LF Roos to catch.

She's always been loud... And when she used to go broody, she was hilarious stomping from here to there, grousing aloud about the conditions around her: big hens in her way, water not freshened the second before she got to it, mud in the yard, somebody else in her not-very-well hidden nest, too many clouds over her favorite dusting hollow, all sorts of issues.

I love Sebrights and had a Golden named Joy as a sister-wife to Alice (when the two Silver Sebright Roos were still part of the flock). Sadly, she died egg bound before I recognized the symptoms.

They are such feisty and adorable birds.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Aw. I've got 5 of the little darlings right now, 2 goldens (Martha passed away last year) and 3 silvers. The only banties in my flock (for now). Rose and Amy are 3 years old as well; the silvers are 2. Cutest things when they're broody, like little tom turkeys all fanned out. Rosie's the spitfire of the lot. Everyone stays out of her way when she gets broody.