Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Will they or won't they?

Nineteen evenings ago, or thereabouts, I went to close up the chicken coop like I have every evening for the past year and half. Just outside the coop, I startled a raccoon, who ran off around the garage.  I peaked inside the little shed to count the tails crowded together on the roost, as I always do. Dusk was past and dark was looming so it was a little hard to tell where one hen stopped and the next started on the crowded roost, but I was pretty sure I was one hen short.

Finally I spied, down in the farthest nest box, next to the small chicken door, the protruding tail of one white hen. None of my hens have ever slept in a nest box, so this concerned me. It was Whitney (as in the mountain, not the singer). She was far enough into the shed that I couldn't reach her without crawling over the sleepers on the roost, so I poked at her a bit with a long stick. Nothing. I thought either she'd already descended into her nighttime coma, or she was dead, our first raccoon victim. I decided to hope for coma and come back in the morning. So, I was surprised to find this the next morning. Not so much a coma as a stupor. A broody stupor.

Whitney is some sort of Leghorn cross, bred for production. I was led to believe that this breed rarely goes broody. Nonetheless there she sat, fluffed up, glassy-eyed, and clucking softly to a large clutch of eggs. And so she's remained for nearly three weeks now. As incubation goes it seems a long comedy of errors to me, unlikely to produce any chicks. The number of eggs under her seemed to vary at first, sometimes more, sometimes less. I couldn't figure it out until a more experienced friend told me to mark the existing eggs. Theoretically, this would help me know when to call time on the whole process and avoid letting Whitney spend the whole summer waiting for eggs to hatch. I did catch Diablo and Shasta (more mountains) adding new eggs to the nest a couple of times when Whitney took her midday breaks. But more strangely, once the original eggs were marked so that I could recognize them, I started finding them in neighboring boxes. I never have seen the deeds that led to this arrangement. Maybe Whitney rejected them and another hen claimed them. Maybe some hens flat out stole them for themselves. No idea. I've tried to remove any new eggs laid since the marking, but I haven't taken the rejected eggs. I'm not sure what to do with them. I don't know how long they were incubated or how developed they were before they were cast out.


I also am not sure how many eggs remain under Whitney.

What I do know is that day 21 is coming up and I will be on the look out for chicks.







9 comments:

  1. Well, I hope you have better luck than I did! Of the six eggs I marked, only one remained at the end of 21 days and there was no chick in it. Luckily, it wasn't stinky when it got broken in the nest box. At the end of 21 days, the silly chicken 'woke up' and left the eggs that were remaining to their own fate. Hubby went to the feed store and bought me four chicks! LOL!!

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    1. I do hope at least one hatches, just for fun. But more than that, I'd like to be done with this batch, so I can sort out all the eggs! I keep thinking I'm going to crack open an egg for breakfast and find a half-done chick inside. Eggs aren't supposed to move around! Next time a hen goes broody, I will separate her for exactly this reason.

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  2. That has to be one of the greatest wonders of the world - how do those eggs 'travel' from one box to another? And what happens to the marked eggs that disappear? Are they in the same place as the missing socks? I hope that you have at least a chick or two - I always feel sorry for the broody hens that work so hard for so long.

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    1. Ha, that's got to be it - whoever messes with the socks, must also tinker with the eggs.

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  3. And I thought I was the only crazy lady who had eggs that magically moved from one nest box to the other. How in the HELL do they manage that?
    Good luck on your hopeful hatch!

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  4. Okay. How does a chiken carry an egg around?

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  5. I sure don't know much about chickens!

    Regarding the paper we shred...My husband gets a paper each day and my friends save papers for me too. I could not be happier with the way it is working out.
    Have saved a lot of bucks on bedding and the stalls are as soft as can be.

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  6. More paper news. My husband will always get the paper, daughter and friends too. Getting it is no problem. Lorrie (who has Moon) has a husband who brings shredded paper from a huge office...got 13 bags this week. The important thing is not to get stapples in it. We start with fine shavings or pelleted bedding and then add the shredded paper...I add lots of it. Cut the shavings in less than half and we don't mind shredding. Just three horses so it is not a problem. I realize that most people would not want to go to the trouble, but it sure works for us and the horse's have amazing beds.

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  7. I hope Whitey gets to be a mom! A hen with leading and herding clutch of chicks makes the farm feel so authentic. None of my hens have gone broody until a couple days ago--maybe because it has been so dang rainy all spring they knew better.

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