Peblo, the maran who survived the fox attack by flying up to the top of a Lleyandii tree next door, has been broody for a couple of days, stopping the other hens from getting into the house, stealing their eggs and pecking away at me.
We don't have a cockerell so all her efforts at hatching eggs would be doomed, so this morning my friend Jane brought round some fertile eggs and I prepared a broody coop for Peblo, put the eggs in a pile and moved her out of the hen house and into the coop. I am very pecked and scratched and wish that I had worn gauntlets - it is not for nothing that Peblo is a fox evader extrordinaire.
She has settled into the coop but I am a bit worried about the eggs not all being under her completely. We did hatch some chicks last year (Peblo was one) but I can't remember whether you could see the eggs under the hen. Time for a call to Jane I think.
Lisa Hector - who makes lovely doorstops and other things in Perthshire - is also waiting on chicks to hatch from under her broody maran - her blog about her life and animals is at http://primrosehillinteriors.blogspot.com.
2 comments:
Hi Jane, thanks for the mention on your blog, our hen is still sitting, that's 9 days now! I know the feeling with getting pecked to bits, our hens, especially the marans were like that to start off with, I think they're getting used to me now! Do you do the whole sitting the hen on grass like it tells you to in the books? I've just put our eggs in a nest of straw, she seems to be quite happy and I would imagine that's how they would do it naturally, but i'm sure the books mention something about keeping the eggs moist? I'm not really one for following things by the book! Hope you're enjoying the last of the summer holidays! Best wishes,
Lisa x
Hi Lisa - I just put her on the normal bedding - I haven't heard about the grass - the last ones were just on straw.
Peblo has now puffed herself up and has become an enormous flat feather duster of a hen so she is now covering all the eggs.
I am very excited as the eggs are all different colours and we haven't a clue what they will turn out to be (must stop counting those chickens!)
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