Happy Harvest Blog
A fleet of broody Silkies
Everyone is outside today! First day out for Foxy and her full-size chicks. She's overdue for it, but it's been rainy. Cotton and Daisy know all about out but have also been in for a bit due to weather. Ten to one one of these hens (Cotton) is going to fly out and go big world today. And tonight, one set of them has to go to the big house - move in with the other hens in Silkieland. That means the hens will all scrap to sort out their order again, but the chicks will like that a lot.
Broodies and brooderies
The first order of business: a broody box for Perchick (smaller than a chickery, but big enough for a big hen mom - wow! I have broody layer hens!)While I was making a broodery, I made another chickery, because I'm sure I'm going to need one real soon. Cream Puff is still freakin' out! She's being good, diligently staying on her eggs, but she's on high alert and looks very concerned like she thinks she's losing her mind, and no one told her this could happen. What's happening to me?! I'm feverish!
Two down
Brown bonnet is broody, the second hen to go. That means it's time to renovate the covered wagon, since my original design proved to not hold up to chickens jumping all over it, and the "door" broke off from metal fatigue from all the bending. So it got a new wooden front, and a flapping door held on by twist ties. Back in the greenhouse, BB was waiting in the box she'd been put into so I could make renovations. She's not a nervous first-time mom. She calmly rolls with anything, even being put in a little box
Eggery
Most times when a hen goes broody she sits on the eggs and doesn't get up. I can put them in a cramped box with a water cup and snack bowl and they don´t budge until the eggs crack.This hen is different. I was sure she was broody, but I kept seeing her outside every mid-morning for an hour or so. I gave her some eggs, and thought that would change, but six days later, she was faithful to her eggs...as long as she had a breakfast break. Different.
White chicks
Inside the coop- mayhem. Older chicks and brown hen huddled in a corner, apparently completely weirded out. Three white chicks strewn around, one tumbled down the ramp to the bottom, one still on it, one dead. White hen impassively eating breakfast.
Box upgrade for the Brown Brood
It amazes me that they are so tiny, a third or less the size of a "normal" chick, and yet, there are any number of songbirds that are no larger as adults. A hummingbird egg must be the size of my pinkie fingernail.
Nearly hatch time (?)
It’s getting exciting! The red hen is almost due. In the interests of continuing to let the white hen do her own thing without interference, we did not look at her eggs.
Broody hen embroilments
In the night I set her onto her clutch. Exciting! When I lifted her up I felt another egg under my fingertips in her belly feathers; I moved it with her. She’s deep in broody chicken trance, motionless and flattened out wide over her eggs.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
