Rainbow and Dotty when we first got them over a year ago, aren't they cute?!Two of our dear hens (Rainbow and Dot) have gone "broody" -that means they just sit on their little nest spot and stare all day long because they imagine they are hatching an egg, apparently it is fairly common. So I did a little bit of research and there were several ideas on how to snap them out of it ranging from picking them up by the feet and shaking them (but I don't think it was a serious suggestion, right?) to cooping them up and not letting them get to their nesting area for like a week so the spell would be broken. Well, I felt kind of sad for them, they just want to be mothers, the poor dears. So I called my great uncle Keith who has lots of hens, peafowl, quail, etc, and he suggested I get some fertilized eggs, slip them under our girls and let them hatch them. He then got me 10 fertilized eggs from a friend and Mom brought them to me on Tuesday. We slipped them under Dotty and Rainbow and they didn't mind a bit (Dotty was sitting on four of FishBlob's eggs and didn't mind when I took those and replaced them with the real thing). Ever since then they've been dutifully sitting on the eggs and taking good care of them. It takes 21 days to hatch a chicken egg and they were laid around the 15th so we've got a couple of weeks before we'll know if we'll have any babies.
The kids are ever so excited, they've already divvied up the chicks (Jeff gets 3, Leah gets 3, Tess 2 and Alana 2 - I guess Pete is out of luck). We've had discussions about how they aren't supposed to touch the eggs or go near them when they hatch so hopefully we won't have any disasters. The kids even made a sign to warn any potential egg molesters. I'm pretty excited about having babies too, it will be an exciting summer!
*Ples (Please) don't touch the eggs. Thar (there) are relle (really) chicse (chicks) in them. No gathring (gathering) eggs! No eggs It isn't notarized so I'm not sure how binding this document is. . .
5 comments:
Awesome, seems phonix werkd on them. I love it. Let us all know what happened.
I'm just laughing at Machelle's comment...too funny! Your chickens are pretty fascinating Al. I didn't know they could go in a trance like that. So does this mean you'll be a Grandma?
So cute. What a great idea to get some babies around the house but not actually be pregnant in the summer"_ I hope it works. You are too cute with your little chickens. You really dote on your little dears.
That's awesome. How fun to have chickens and maybe some chicks soon. You'll have to keep us posted. Hey we need to be having reunion planning's! Email me. We are excited to see you guys.
We have one brooder out of our little hennys. Not sure what to do about it yet. Maybe give her fake eggs to enjoy... just won't have the joy of hatching anything. Good luck with the upcoming little ones!
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