The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

Some years are just better than others for Orpie chicks. I lost my first pen full to a fox. So I feel like I am behind on growing some out. too hot here for doing much of anything. Hoping this next fall is a better season for getting eggs and hatching. Trying to keep my numbers slimmed down. I am planning on going on some mission trips in 12 so that must take priority. I do have some promising looking chicks but as you all know it takes time to grow out these big birds.
 
Just when I think I have a handle on this chicken-thing...

I went into the coop last night to lock up and saw a girl in the nesting box. I thought it was weird, but assumed she was just trying something new. This morning she was still there, then this afternoon she was there again. She had managed to flatten herself into a pancake shape, too. I started worrying that something was wrong, so I pulled her out and put her on the coop floor and, flop, she assumed the pancake position again. I flipped out, thinking she had some dread disease, that her legs were paralyzed, wondering how to isolate her, when she noticed I had brought blackberries. She hopped right up and trotted over to the bowl for a treat. I breathed a sigh of relief and headed back to the house.

As I was walking back it struck me. She was on an egg! Is it possible she was trying to go broody? I feel like an idiot that the possibility didn't occur to me immediately. (I need a forehead-smacking smiley here) I was extremely close to sticking her in a kennel and forcing vitamins on her.

If she is broody, it figures. I finished hatching last week. There isn't a fertile egg on the place...
 
Sounds like she does want to be a momma.
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You know you're in love (-obsessed) with these birds when you call home and you hear a rooster crow... then ask the person you're speaking to, "That was Neville, right? How is he doing?"
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Agh! Who would want to be a mamma in this HEAT?!? She's tricky, too. I take her off, she wanders away, I come back, and she's right back on there!! She doesn't growl or get grouchy. You can tell she's thinking, "Fine, but you aren't going to stay here all day, ARE you?"

I'm really glad I'm on summer vacation. With taking her off the next and delivering ice water, I am occupied almost all day.

I know that I'm chicken obsessed because I freeze, then start scanning the sky when I hear the alarm cry. (People look at you weird when you do that when company is over, by the way.)
 
I was just noticing the starting price on some of these auctions! Wow! Are they always that high?

Jeremy- How much $ for chick? If you have decided yet.
 

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