Two of our Dark Brahmas are broody. One has staked out a nesting box in the chicken coop and won’t leave it. When chickens are broody, they sit on their clutch of eggs all day and all night - leaving about once every 24 hours to relieve themselves and get some food.
Other chickens cram into the broody hen’s nesting box, leaving their eggs for the broody one to hatch and raise. Who knows how many eggs this chicken is hoarding?
We’ve had broody hens before - when we only had the old flock. But, at that point, there was no rooster, so I just collected the eggs every day and let the broody lady sit in her box. After twenty-one days (which is when the eggs would hatch) she’d get back out of the nesting box, shake her feathers, and rejoin the rest of the flock - all that broodiness a thing of the past.
But now we have a rooster.
Out of sheer curiosity, I’m not picking up the broody hen’s eggs when I go collecting in the afternoons. We’ve decided to leave whatever eggs she’s amassed in her nest with her. We’re letting her sit on them. Perhaps we’ll have baby chicks in three weeks. (Like we need more chickens - we’re averaging between two and three dozen eggs a day now).
Our second broody brahma has chosen a little feral cat crate by Jan’s front door as her nesting spot. Originally she chose the large dog crate that used to sit on Jan’s front stoop, but that crate didn’t have a door. I don’t know if you remember the chicken who was murdered by a skunk several weeks ago, but we now suspect that the reason she stayed out there when everyone else went into the coop for the night was that she had gotten broody and had chosen the dog crate for her nest.
We needed the new broody hen to relocate - to a place where we could keep her safe at night. We had a terrible time getting her out of the dog crate. We ended up picking the entire crate up and shaking her out. She was mad. She refused to go to either chicken coop. I finally had to pick her up and place her inside a coop and shut the door before she escaped.
The next day, we got her a cat crate with a door. She immediately settled in to incubate her eggs. We shut the door every night so no skunks can get at her. Who knows why she’s so adamant about this particular location. (Oh, and I bring scratch to her every afternoon. I'd just given some to her when I snapped this photo.)
If chickens are going to get broody, it generally happens around this time of year. It’s the weather - their brains signal them that there's fair weather ahead for raising their chicks.
According to Murray McMurray Hatchery (which is the hatchery who sent us our second flock in the mail) some breeds of chickens are more likely to become broody than others. They list Cochins, Buff Orpingtons, Light Brahmas, Dark Cornish, and Buff Rocks as the broodiest.
None of our Light Brahmas have gotten broody, and because three of our Dark Brahmas have, we were thinking that the Dark Brahmas were the broodiest. Murray McMurray goes on to list Turkens, Buff Brahmas, and Cuckoo Marans as the next broodiest group.
We saw some Turkens at the Tractor Supply. They have bald necks. And sparser than normal breast plumage. They are a really unattractive breed. Cuckoo Marans are one of the many types of Marans developed in the French town of Marans during the 1800s. They lay deeply brown eggs - sometimes speckled. We’re hoping to get some Copper Marans later this summer.
In any case, when the hens are broody they defend their nest vehemently. Usually I can reach underneath a hen and slide her eggs out, and she will barely cluck at me. But, with a broody hen, as soon as my hand is near her she’ll puff herself up - fluffing her feathers so that they stand on end in order to look menacing - and she'll peck me until I retreat.
It seems to me that the Dark Brahmas are prone to pecking, anyway. The other day, I was walking Coco, and we walked into the chicken yard. Whenever I walk in there the chickens run to see if I’m bringing them food. They saw that I had, instead, a little dog, and most of them turned away and resumed whatever they'd been doing. One Dark Brahma, however, walked right up and pecked my hand. She did not want to take “no food” for an answer.
In goat world, Jan continues to gradually teach the new mamas how to be milked on the stand. They are all getting up onto the stand by themselves now, so Jan is running the milking machine while they eat their grain - so they get used to the sound. She massages their udders, getting them accustomed to what happens when we milk them.
Tonight is an exciting night in that long progression of learning. We’re going to separate all the babies from all the mamas overnight for the first time. The six older kids have already been separated from their mamas overnight. For quite a long time. But, the nine younger kids have not. So, tomorrow morning, we’ll milk all the mamas before we let their babies rejoin them in the main pen. All the babies have been eating hay for awhile. They are all at least a month old. They should be fine.
And in soap world, we’ve completed two new designs.
I love Kat’s Wind Leaf design the most.
These are not yet available on our website - they’re not cured yet. But you can stop by and stock up on regular soap: https://www.serenasoaps.com/