What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

I have 5 or 6 Buff Orpingtons so it's hard to say if it's the SAME hen every year, but I *always* have at least one BO who goes broody. I also have 2 Cream Legbars, a Gold Laced Wyandotte, a White Leghorn, and another hen (unknown mixed breed) who are all also broody... I love watching the hens raise chicks, even if I DON'T love their aggressive protectiveness... But every year I let them try to hatch chicks, I inevitably get some dead chicks who get trampled to death by hens jockeying for control of the nesting box. If I try to move the broody & eggs to a broody box, they abandon the eggs. So I rarely let mine actually hatch eggs...

 

[Jenbirdee]

Planted turmeric & set tomato cages. Soaking dipping gourd seeds overnight for planting tomorrow.

 

[dirkandlorie]

Broody hens? Back in my parents and granparents day broody hens were put in an outdoor cage and wet down repeatedly like every day until they quit. Hence the saying madder than an old wet hen.

My grandma used to take them off the nest and hold them for a few minutes in a cool bucket of water, chill their rear ends down. I hate the idea of caging a broody so I follow her ways, even if they're over 120 years old. Or maybe because they're 120 years old, I like the old ways.

 

[WthrLady]

I have a bottomless dog crate and a gentle fan that I used as a broody breaker. They could snuggle down as much as they wanted to but that cooling breeze usually snapped them out of it in about 3 days. No eggs, no free ranging, no friends, no fun.......

 

[Minanora]

Every since I installed the roll-away nest box, no more broodies. (Installed because I had Bernadette - the egg destroyer.)

Mine still go broody even with the roll away boxes. My cuckoo Marans is the biggest offender, she went broody 3 times before she was 1. Now she's 1, and has already gone broody once this season. My BA has gone broody once. Not yet this year, but it'll happen. Probably when it's 112 outside. She's not very bright. But is very sweet.

My SAO hens have never gone broody.

 

[Minanora]

My grandma used to take them off the nest and hold them for a few minutes in a cool bucket of water, chill their rear ends down. I hate the idea of caging a broody so I follow her ways, even if they're over 120 years old. Or maybe because they're 120 years old, I like the old ways.

I did this with the hose this year. DS was very concerned with the "raw chicken" I was touching and exposing he had never seen a bald chicken belly. He thought it was raw chicken and told me I needed to I wash my hands I had to explain that it wasn't raw chicken. It was pretty comical. The hose didn't work. I had to put her out in the orchard for 5 days and put her up on the roost every night. She was so grumpy. We called her the angry chicken pancake. Since she turns into a pancake if you plop her out of the nest. Broodies kind of puddle down like a pancake when they hit the ground.

Anyway. Today in the garden I planted some of the marigolds and, celosia, bachelors buttons and calendulas.i grow more and more flowers every year. I also added wood chips to another garden bed. Tomorrow I'll do another one. I watered the orchard cover crop, at least most of it. I still have some areas to move the sprinkler to. I'm thinking that I probably have too much maintenance..... But it makes me so happy that I really don't care.

 

[akroberts1085]

I did this with the hose this year. DS was very concerned with the "raw chicken" I was touching and exposing he had never seen a bald chicken belly. He thought it was raw chicken and told me I needed to I wash my hands I had to explain that it wasn't raw chicken. It was pretty comical. The hose didn't work. I had to put her out in the orchard for 5 days and put her up on the roost every night. She was so grumpy. We called her the angry chicken pancake. Since she turns into a pancake if you plop her out of the nest. Broodies kind of puddle down like a pancake when they hit the ground.

Anyway. Today in the garden I planted some of the marigolds and, celosia, bachelors buttons and calendulas.i grow more and more flowers every year. I also added wood chips to another garden bed. Tomorrow I'll do another one. I watered the orchard cover crop, at least most of it. I still have some areas to move the sprinkler to. I'm thinking that I probably have too much maintenance..... But it makes me so happy that I really don't care.

The story about your son saying it's a raw chicken you have to wash your hands made my night. God Bless the children and their comical little minds.

 

[Smokerbill]

I’m too soft hearted to butcher so I’ll be stuck buying chicken. Are you by chance keeping track of what you’re swapping from the store to the garden?

I've never processed a chicken but I'm forcing myself to do it. I've cleaned loads of fish and wild game in the past, just nothing I've raised myself.

Not really keeping track of that. I don't have to have a wide variety of veggies year 'round. More of a seasonal eater as things are ready in the garden. Lots of chives and leaf lettuce this time of year, and some bok choi. Soon I'll have red kale and collards to add to the mix. Then the peas, maybe beets and onions. And when tomatoes start getting ripe I eat loads of tomatoes. In the off season I have greens, peas, beans in the freezer, onions, and salsa. Lots of salsa!

 

[chicken opey]

My yellow tomatoes are growing on my patio!
DH is putting chicken wire around my garden so we will be able to let the chickens dig deep all day after end of season!
This is our first time hatching our own chickens from our own eggs
We got 8 out of 18.
Not good at candling these dark eggs

 

[WthrLady]

Mine still go broody even with the roll away boxes. My cuckoo Marans is the biggest offender, she went broody 3 times before she was 1. Now she's 1, and has already gone broody once this season. My BA has gone broody once. Not yet this year, but it'll happen. Probably when it's 112 outside. She's not very bright. But is very sweet.

My SAO hens have never gone broody.

Do your nesting boxes in the roll away have vented bottoms?