It's happened again.
We have a broody hen.
Not sure how this is all going to pan out, but last Saturday morning, I heeded advice I'd read online, managed to get to the nest while she was off drinking water, and marked the eggs she had under her with a sharpie. So yesterday when she absolutely refused to budge, I took the flat side of the hoe, pushed her fat self off the eggs (blocking her beak from my hand in the process), and grabbed every egg that wasn't marked.
I guess it's because I'm a strange human, but it still baffles me that the girls (the hens) continue to lay eggs in the same nest where the Buff is sitting. We have a ton of nesting boxes in the hen house, and yet they all continue to use the same one. It's just crazy.
So for the next 14 days (when those three eggs should hatch), I guess the hoe will continue to be friend and bear the pecking meant for my hands as I go for eggs. And I don't know what will happen once those eggs hatch. Last year she had two biddies and smothered one of them, but we had her in a different pen with just her and the eggs. This year, not sure how those chicks will survive with all the hens and the rooster nearby.
Sometimes it seems like I'm constantly either researching something or learning something the hard way.
Meanwhile...two weeks!
We have a broody hen.
Not sure how this is all going to pan out, but last Saturday morning, I heeded advice I'd read online, managed to get to the nest while she was off drinking water, and marked the eggs she had under her with a sharpie. So yesterday when she absolutely refused to budge, I took the flat side of the hoe, pushed her fat self off the eggs (blocking her beak from my hand in the process), and grabbed every egg that wasn't marked.
I guess it's because I'm a strange human, but it still baffles me that the girls (the hens) continue to lay eggs in the same nest where the Buff is sitting. We have a ton of nesting boxes in the hen house, and yet they all continue to use the same one. It's just crazy.
So for the next 14 days (when those three eggs should hatch), I guess the hoe will continue to be friend and bear the pecking meant for my hands as I go for eggs. And I don't know what will happen once those eggs hatch. Last year she had two biddies and smothered one of them, but we had her in a different pen with just her and the eggs. This year, not sure how those chicks will survive with all the hens and the rooster nearby.
Sometimes it seems like I'm constantly either researching something or learning something the hard way.
Meanwhile...two weeks!
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