I've Gone Country A blog about a city girl learning a whole new world

When the kids think you do something funny they say……  You are a “Crazy Chicken”.

Billy and I have found ourselves saying it too…even when the kids aren’t around.  Maybe we are going a little bit that direction ourselves……

This evening I entered the coop to check in on everyone before dark.

Recently I had three hens decide to go broody at one time….for the first time since I have owned hens.

My egg production went down to almost nothing.  Once one hen started sitting then the other girls would lay an egg beside her in the same box.  I suppose they thought that if she was going to hatch babies there was no need for everybody to be sitting for three weeks.  They would just let her do all the work.    Besides they know that I won’t reach in and get the eggs if they are sitting.  I like for the Mama’s to be Mama’s.

It was cute seeing each girl decide which box they were going to make their home.

I found them very amusing tonight.  I had to use the phone to capture these pics so please pardon the picture quality.

To start off….Tiny…which is this hen…. was in Beverly’s box.

Tiny tried to hatch an egg about 6 weeks ago.  About 4 days before hatching time….the egg disappeared!?!?!?!?!  I guess it wasn’t fertile or something.  I never did find any remnants of that egg…..strange…strange.

Sooooo apparently she decided today to give it another try.  Which now makes four hens sitting.  The whitish egg closest to her is her egg….the others she is sitting on including the brown one you see in this pic….well they are Beverly’s.

So….I looked to see where Beverly was.

She was in Amy’s box sitting on her eggs……

Hmmmmm….then where is Amy?  Why of course she was in Maggie Mae’s box sitting on her eggs.

That meant Maggie Mae was where?

Oh…..She was at the feeder of course….. taking a supper break.

She proceeded to go back to her box.

Which was still occupied by Amy.

Which didn’t seem to really bother Maggie Mae that much…..

She just squeezed her way right in.

Which surprisingly enough didn’t seem to bother Amy much either.

Maggie turned this way…

And that way….

She proceeded to go over Amy’s head….

And back again….

And again…..

Bless her heart….she was just trying to get comfortable.

If she could talk I believe she would have said…..excuse me ….Amy……I just need to get over here a little bit further…..

Pardon me hun…..

There now….that’s better….

Isn’t that better?    Ahhhhh….yes.  Much… much…. better.

Alrighty then….we’re good!

Neither one of them look comfortable….. if you ask me.

So now they have totally confused me.

I thought I knew when the first babies were going to hatch.  They were the ones Maggie Mae was sitting on..but now maybe they are the ones that Amy is sitting on……

Oh boy….

I do believe we just may have a few…”Crazy Chickens” for real!!!!!!!

I’ve been waiting for this day…..day 21.

You do remember what this day is don’t you?  This is the day that we are supposed to see if the first egg hatched!

I actually checked yesterday to see if anything was happening…but I couldn’t tell.

Today I anxiously entered the coop.

Sure enough there sat an egg…in front of Maggie Mae….CRACKED!!!!!!

I was so excited…..

Until I looked closer…..

Why even Maggie Mae looks as if she doesn’t know what to say.  I think she too was surprised….I almost got tickled at the way she was JUST kept looking at it.  Like…I…I…I don’t know what went wrong……

I proceeded to put feed out for everybody…..and she came a running.  That gave me a minute to look back into the nest.  I even poked around in the shavings to see if possibly there just might have been a baby around…..but…. NO.

Looks like we still have three to go……

Well, I suppose this week we will see if any of the ones left turn out any better.

I do find it interesting that today marks 21 days exactly for one of the eggs.  So she somehow knew that.  I suppose she pecked the whole in the egg.  Hmmmmm really makes me wonder how in the world she knew it was exactly 21 days.  I could see if the chick hatched in that time span….it would all be on the chick.   You know…the development….like a human baby…it comes when the baby is ready.  But somehow….she knew that it was time for that egg to hatch…..

Very interesting……

I will keep you posted as the week goes on….I sure hope we don’t have all duds…but I think it is leaning that way.

I posted the other day about a GREAT idea I had.  My Friend has hens laying plenty of eggs….but she can’t get one of her hens to hatch any eggs for her.  My difficulty has been getting the hens to lay more than 2 or three eggs a day all season long.   Maggie Mae decided to try to hatch one little lonely egg.

My great idea was to sneak eggs from my friends coop up under Maggie Mae and let her hatch eggs for me and my friend.  After all three weeks worth of sitting on an egg should pay bigger dividends.  She should have a bigger batch….make it worthwhile….at least in my opinion.  Of course I am the kind of girl that would have been tickled to have had twins! The more the merrier.

My wheels were turning….I concocted a plan…..and implemented it.

It all worked just as I had hoped….I retrieved nine eggs from my friends coop and took them straight to my coop.  I put feed in the feeder, Maggie Mae got off the nest to eat a bite and grab a drink of water.  Meanwhile, I quickly put my friends eggs along side the three others that Maggie was on.  Maggie started with only one egg, but every few days I would sneak a freshly laid egg from one of my other hens, under her as well.

I was so proud….YES, 12 beautiful eggs….and all she had to do was sit on them.

She never missed a beat.  She ate and drank and went right back up and sat down on them.

I was most pleased with myself!

She continued to sit on them….

Two days later…..I went to feed everyone.   I noticed Maggie Mae was rearranging things….she was standing over the eggs…. on the board in front of the nesting box.

I was afraid that it was NOT going to have a good ending.

The next morning when I checked on the crew…..this is what I found.

Maggie Mae… looking sheepish……an egg on the board in front of her nest…..AND

evidence of an egg throwing party.

There she sat….as if to say…..I’m NOT stupid. I knew those were not mine….where DID you find them anyway?

At least that is what the look in her eyes was expressing….   She didn’t get up….so I had no idea how many eggs she discarded.

The next visit to the coop…she once again got up to eat while I was there.

That’s when I saw these four eggs.

I know she had three from our coop….so she must have saved one egg from the other hens.  Well…. really I don’t know which eggs came from which coop.  Then again maybe they are all from the other coop….  Who Knows.  Maybe we will be able to tell once they are born.  My friend and I have some of the same type hens…but then… some are different.  I need to make a mental note….I meant to mark the eggs so I could see which came from which coop.

It really doesn’t matter to me, except I was trying to get my friend some chicks since she has been so gracious to share her eggs with us.

From what I read, sneaking eggs under a sitting hen is not unusual…..In other words I didn’t have an original idea by any means.  Many other hen owners have done the same thing.  It is believed that the hens can tell if the eggs are fertile or not.  At least most of the time.  They will often cull out the ones that are not.  Sometimes a mother won’t sit on too many eggs, Although sitting on 12 to 15 happens frequently enough.

The more I read…the more I see that it is all trial and error.  Nobody can say for certain what is going on inside that little bird brain of theirs.  Anymore than they can tell what is going on in ours.

Whatever the reasoning….she has opted to only sit on four….I just hope it stays at that number.  I would hate to see her continue to toss out eggs.

But then again, if they aren’t fertile we might be smelling a rotten egg after three weeks of sitting.

I have to admit….my bubble was busted a little….but her instincts are probably accurate.

Time will tell…….

Meanwhile the countdown continues!!!!!!

WOO HOO

Alright, so my girls have NOT been productive this whole year.  I have been very disappointed.  I have given them every excuse, for their lack of production.  I know they have been extremely stressed this year from predators.  After thinking about it….that didn’t even happen to these hens.  These are a whole new bunch except for Maggie Mae.  She is the only one who SAW the horror or the attacks on the other girls.  I would give her a pass for NEVER having to lay another egg….but she is a trooper….she at least still tries.

All of these other have just been loved too much.  I have come to the conclusion that they are just spoiled.  They eat all the time.  They have access to a nice yard full of green grass and I still give them cracked corn and laying pellets.  They have all the fresh clean water they could want.  They have reinforced fences and a coop with an automatic door.   Yet, even with all that….I might…if I’m lucky…get two eggs a day.  And I have 14 hens!

Now, I have a friend who has 12 hens and she gets 10 to 12 eggs a day.  WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?!?!?!?!?!?!

I am happy for my friend…don’t get me wrong….but I am NOT happy that I have to beg MY hens to lay an egg for me.

I asked my friend what it is that she is doing differently.  She only feeds them laying pellets… a certain amount a day.  She lets them free range some…but not everyday because she doesn’t live at the place she keeps them.  When she is going to be on her land working for a few hours, she lets them out to free range.  And they still go to their coop and lay her 10 to 12 eggs a day.

Amazing….just amazing.

Well anyway, she has eggs coming out of her ears needless to say….so she had mercy on me and said I could gather hers if I wanted them.  Stating that she had more than she knows what to do with at the moment.   She said she had one or two hundred in her fridge!!!!

Needless to say…….I took her up on her offer and started gathering her eggs each day.  It is amazing how quick they can accumulate.

No wonder she had so many in her fridge.   These are just some of the ones I have gathered in the last few weeks.

I have been sharing them with our friends that I know love farm eggs too.  To me….that is the neat part……..being able to share them with others.

Goodness…Billy and I can only use so many….but sharing them makes it fun for everyone.  People’s eyes actually light up when you give them farm fresh eggs!

I mentioned the other day that Maggie Mae has been sitting on an egg since last Sunday.  Today, she got up to eat and I noticed that it is just that….one egg….one single little egg. Well, one of my other girls had laid an egg today in the box next to her….so I quickly put it beside the egg she is sitting on.   I’m hoping she won’t boot it out of the nest.

Tomorrow, after I collect eggs at my friends coop, and any eggs I might happen to have from my coop, I am going to sneak them into Maggie Mae’s nest!

Sometimes the grass does seem greener on the other side.  I mean I wish my girls would lay more eggs, but my friend wishes that at least one of her girls would sit on her eggs so she could have some baby chicks.   She is even thinking about buying an incubator.

I figure that If I can get Maggie Mae to sit on all of them, possibly we will have lots of babies in a few weeks.  Maggie Mae would be one proud Mama if she could hatch all those babies!  Golly, if she is going to go to all that trouble sitting for three weeks….she might as well have more than one baby out of it.  Then my friend will get the baby chicks she wants.

Now….there is one problem…….we really won’t know if ANY of the eggs are fertile…..but I sure am hoping so!!!!

I just love it when I get a good idea…..Hee Hee….I’m so excited….I can hardly wait until tomorrow.