ingrid

My mother thinks I am crazy.  She said as much as we jumped in the car and raced out to Cornelius as though lives depended on it.

You see, I have a broody hen.  Agnes has once again decided that she really ought to be a mother.  Last year at this time I struggled with this hen for two weeks.  I took her eggs, I pushed her off the nest, I locked her out of the henhouse.  Nothing worked.  She was still broody.

So this time, the first day she went missing and turned up puffed up and cross under the nesting boxes, I knew that it was better not to fight it.  I got on-line, found a farm selling fertilized eggs and convinced my mother to drive with me about 45 minutes to buy them for less than $5.  Rushing home, I plopped them under her.  My baby is going to be a mama, and my mama thinks I am loony.

Do I need to do much edjumacation here?  A broody hen is a hen who collects eggs underneath her in hopes of hatching some chicks in 2o-ish days.  Most laying breeds have attempted to breed the “broodiness” out of the hen as you don’t get eggs while the hen broods.  Not to mention that there is little point of having a broody hen when there is no rooster around.  That hen could sit on her nest of eggs until cows came to graze in my backyard, and still there would not be any chicks.  This hen was sitting on a nest of nothing, so that gives you an idea of the shear force of biology.

I got some pics but they are not fantastic.  If you can believe it, I was actually holding Inez on one hip while trying to take pictures of Agnes.

As you may notice, Agnes here is all puffed up.  She is a little heat machine with all that air collecting between her fluffed up feathers.  She also makes a weird noise when she is broody- sort of a trill warning me away.

I put 12 eggs under her (after marking them with Xs– this was necessary as she might lay an occasional egg of her own and those I want to take).  The eggs were all different colors which is pretty exciting to me.  Those babies will have to grow up before we can solve the mystery of their lineage.  It is like a birthday present!  The big question that I know you all have is, “What if you get some roosters?”.  Low and behold, the farm where the eggs came from offered to take them back!  The next one is, “Aren’t you only suppose to have three hens in the city?”.  Mind your own business you meddling commie!  Would you like a dozen eggs to take home?  Maybe a quiche before you go?

There are some issues to resolve, so maybe chip in with a comment here if  you know the answers to these problems.

• Will the other hens peck and hurt the babies when I bring the flock back together?
• When do I move Agnes and eggs to their own box?  I obviously need to so that chicks don’t hatch and fall out the hen house ramp to their death.
• I heard that baby roosters start crowing at a young age.  True?
• If I put chick crumble out for them, will the adult hens eat it?
• Will they be able to climb the ladder to the henhouse?

It is all very exciting!  We hope to have some babies in about three weeks.  I will keep you all posted.

In: Chickens Are Super Fabulous, Projects That I Do With My Clever Little Fingers | | #