I'm new to the BYC club, with two Pekin Bantam hens & one (I think) EE roster. One of my hens has recently gone broody, so much so that iv decided to let her have a chance of sitting on an egg for three weeks. Who knows maybe I'll add a new chick to my flock!?!?!? Now I haven't wanted to leave her with too many eggs (we don't want that many more chickens) so I have marked one egg, & replaced a couple with decoys so she is currently sitting on one egg & two plastics.
So far so good & 5 days into it she is sitting pretty. Now I let my flock free range & she can come & go as she pleases. The last two days iv noticed that she will leave her nest for about half an hour or so each day & as soon as she does, within minutes my other hen will jump straight on the 3 eggs! When the first hen comes back from doing what she is doing she will sit next to the second hen, sometimes for a couple of hours, until the second hen gives up & goes to do other things. When I check on the first hen she will be back sitting on four eggs, the latest egg care of the second hen.
Has anyone else experienced something like this before? I'm so proud of my girls sharing the work load, even if it is a 90/10% split. I do worry that I might be disturbing the first hen too much though as each day I check & have to pull out the new egg...
So far so good & 5 days into it she is sitting pretty. Now I let my flock free range & she can come & go as she pleases. The last two days iv noticed that she will leave her nest for about half an hour or so each day & as soon as she does, within minutes my other hen will jump straight on the 3 eggs! When the first hen comes back from doing what she is doing she will sit next to the second hen, sometimes for a couple of hours, until the second hen gives up & goes to do other things. When I check on the first hen she will be back sitting on four eggs, the latest egg care of the second hen.
Has anyone else experienced something like this before? I'm so proud of my girls sharing the work load, even if it is a 90/10% split. I do worry that I might be disturbing the first hen too much though as each day I check & have to pull out the new egg...
