Oh no, did Blooie catch the Chicken Math sickness? Are you going to have a spare room of chick again?
Blooie didn't catch the sickness, Katie and her chicken Agatha did. They ganged up on me! About a week or so before we left for a weekend in Jackson Hole, Agatha went broody. I neglected to tell my little chicken caretaker. Katie and her mom thought Agatha was dead in the nest. All they could see was her tail sticking out and they were afraid to touch her. If they had, she'd have growled and fluffed her feathers so they'd have known she was very much alive.
Anyway, Jen finally called me Sunday morning to tell me that they thought Aggie might have died, because when they checked her late Saturday night she hadn't even gone up on the roost. So I explained it to Jenny, who then tried to delicately explain it to Katie without getting too reproductively technical. She told Katie that silly Agatha was trying to hatch some eggs and there were probably some under her right now. Katie burst out, "Oh, great! Agatha's gone broody and Gramma doesn't have a rooster so none of the eggs are fertile." So much for delicate! Then Katie took the bamboo chicken persuader and prodded Aggie off the nest, gathered the 2 Marans eggs that Agatha had adopted, and replaced the wooden one under her. "There, if she tries to hatch that all she's gonna get is splinters in her hiney."
So we were home for a couple of days and then left for Sioux Falls for Little Diane's wedding on Wednesday. Katie somehow remembered something that I'd forgotten...back when the chickens were all first laying, I couldn't keep up with the eggs, so I put some in cartons in the outside fridge until I had more space in the kitchen fridge. I totally spaced that they were out there. She went out and selected 9 eggs (she thought 9 made a nice family size) brought them in the house and put them in a clean carton on the counter so they'd warm up. The next day she again prodded a reluctant Agatha off the nest and put those eggs in her nest. She wanted to surprise me but I'd gone out to the coop the day after we got home --- without her. She showed up, disappointment all over her face because her surprise was ruined. She'd wanted to show me what she'd done herself. Well, I looked around and everything looked perfect as usual, so she still got to show me first. She got Agatha off the nest and there were 9 eggs under that chicken. Katie was so proud - she said that the eggs said they were laid in July (I pencil the day they were laid on top of each egg) and we had roosters then, so the eggs were probably fertile, right? I didn't have the heart to tell her they were probably no good, so I was just going to order some and then secretly switch them so her chicken would "hatch" Katie's eggs. But better sense prevailed and I finally told her a few days ago that we'd ordered some hatching eggs and that I was so proud of her brilliant idea to get Agatha used to sitting on lots of eggs. She beamed. And I can't believe that after all that prodding Agatha is still as broody as ever.....although she is MUCH crabbier and the last two days she was really not co-operating at all....as the nick out of my thumb and the one on my wrist can attest!
So it wasn't chicken math that got me - it was a pair of huge blue eyes under a mop of curly blonde hair and a smile that could melt a Yeti's heart that got me. I'm hoping Agatha is as a good a mom as she is a demon egg sitter so I don't end up with chicks in the house, because I don't have a spare room in here - Ken would have to give up his office again.
