Going for Gold
Broody hen is at it again, she went broody a few weeks ago. I had already removed the wooden eggs from the nests, these help keep the chickens laying in the nesting boxes as opposed to making their own nests out about about. That also means that they want to lay eggs in the nest that has eggs in it, aka the one broody hen is sitting on. So the wooden eggs returned and fertile eggs from the neighbor were given to Miss Broody. Hopefully this will keep the other hens from crowding her out of her nest.
I marked all the eggs I want to hatch and will check daily to remove any extras that appear, that doesn’t usually happen with the wooden eggs in the other boxes. I tried to separate her into the portable coop so she could hatch her eggs in peace, but she was having none of that. She must be an extrovert.
Hopefully Miss Broody will successfully hatch out another clutch of littles, we’re hoping to completely replace our flock next spring with the hens she’s hatched this summer. If this batch hatched one will go to the neighbor to replace a hen he lost recently and to repay him for giving us fertile eggs. Keep your fingers crossed for Broody Hen.
I didn’t have good luck leaving the broody hen in a regular nesting box. The other girls laid eggs in other boxes and then one day before I could gather the eggs, miss broody moved to another nest box and her clutch was stone cold. If I have another broody, I’ll move her to her own quarters.
to Jennifer Fisk's comment
Susy, life goes on, doesn’t it. I didn’t know that hens would go broody at the end of summer. I always thought it was a spring time thing. I don’t think Mom ever tried to hatch eggs. Our chicks always came in the box with air holes in it from either the feed store or through the mail. Come to think of it we didn’t ever intentionally have a rooster. We would on occasion find a nest of rotten eggs to throw. There is a skill involved to throwing a rotten egg without having it explode in your hand.
At my uncle’s farm, hens with chicks would just show up in the yard every spring. It wasn’t an intentional thing but things happen with a rooster around.
Have a great chick hatching day.
to Nebraska Dave's comment