One of my Black Australorp hens (a one-year old) is broody. She started sitting in a nest box a few days ago. For the first couple of days we kept moving her to get the eggs out – there was one egg the first day and none the second day. The third day, I put four eggs under her that I found in the other boxes – I’m going to give her a chance and see what she can do. I don’t think she’s laying eggs at this point, since she’s broody, and she hasn’t come out much for others to lay their eggs in there. I’m a little worried because we are getting into late august – if she can hatch them, the chicks would be born in mid September. We sometimes get snow by Halloween, so I may have to have a contingency plan for chicks if we do get any from this. We’ll see.
I was in the coop earlier and my Speckled Sussex hen was really upset that this broody hen wouldn’t come out of the box, because she wanted to lay an egg. She kept squawking at the broody hen. There are three other nest boxes. I showed the Sussex hen the other boxes, and I think she laid an egg in one of those.
I like spoiling my chickens with occasional yummy treats – they get a lot of vegetable scraps and some bits of bread sometimes. Yesterday it was hot outside, so I gave my chickens some watermelon as a treat. They really love it – they will pick it till there’s just a thin bit of rind left.
I have separated out the roosters from the hens again. The boys wouldn’t leave the ladies alone. I have two Production Red hens that wouldn’t even come out of the coop. I’d go to pick them up and they’d duck down like they do when they’re about to be mounted by a rooster. The 6 remaining roosters were just too much for the 15 hens. We are planning to cull some of those 6, we are still not sure which ones.
My Sumatra hen flew up on my shoulder today when I was in the coop. That was a little weird. She’s smaller than the other hens, and probably always will be – they are a smaller breed. But it was funny that she flew up and sat there.
My tiny u.p. farm 