Thursday, August 16, 2007

The Great Egg Hunt

I've mentioned Chatterbox, our crazy hen, a few times. She has always been different. She used to be very nervous, putting up a big ruckus for the slightest thing. She doesn't roost where she is supposed to. She doesn't lay where she is supposed to.

This spring when she started laying, it would take us days to figure out where she had made her nest. We did want to hatch out some chicks, but at the time we didn't have a rooster. When we got the rooster, she made a nice nest under some shelves in a storage area. She hatched out her chicks about two months ago.

A little over a week ago, I could tell she was getting ready to lay again. She started chasing the young ones off, clucking and exploring the storage area again. At this point in the summer, we really don't want her to hatch out another nest. We want the eggs.

She went back to the nest under the shelves. I collected eggs there for about four days, then apparently she got tired of me taking her eggs. The next day I found an egg near the ducks nest. The next day Chatterbox was making a new nest in some old screen on a shelf in the storage area. She let me collect a couple eggs there.

Then the kids went out to feed the animals and found this:


Actually what they found was Chatterbox inside the feed bag, but by the time I got there with the camera, all that was left was the egg. I haven't been able to find an egg since. I guess I am going to have to let her hatch out a nest again, or keep her in the coop if I want the eggs. What a crazy chicken!

3 comments:

  1. awwwhh,, Poor hen! Why is it that some hens just are dead set to brood? Tarah's got a chicken like that. I can her "Prissy" because she was unsucessful for so long! (a foghorn leg horn reference!)

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  2. She just wants to hatch some chicks. Is that so wrong? LOL!
    I'd coop her up for a bit, get her used to you collecting eggs and then let her hatch out a few. Maybe when you start collecting again, she won't mind as much if she knows you'll let her hatch some eventually.

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  3. LOL! Poor little Mama chicken. Let the poor thing hatch some chicks and then collect the eggs when the chicks start laying. :) Um, or you could eat her for supper. ;)

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