Thursday, May 06, 2010

Broody Chickens


These hens are not broody.

The broody hens are in the pen. I took the broody hens out of their nest boxes and shut them in the chicken pen where they have feed and water but no access to nest boxes. They are not happy but at least they are eating and drinking and walking around.

The rest of the hens can get to the nest boxes to lay eggs but can't get to the automatic waterer. So, I filled a pan of water for the outside chickens. I had to sprinkle some scratch near the water pan before the chickens would would come check the pan out. They like the water in the pan ok but they really like the water that flowed out and made puddles in the dirt when I was filling the pan. They love that muddy water. Go figure.

I spent some time wandering around finding more branches and bringing them back to the planter beds. I'm going to fill the dug out beds with wood then fill it with water and let the wood soak before I put on a layer of dirt.

Next step is to get the branch cutters and make smaller branches out of big ones and arrange all this wood neatly. I think I will try walking around on the branches first and see if some of them will just break into smaller pieces.

iPhoto is giving me a headache! It is just short of crashing running very, very slow. I was going through old photos and throwing them in the trash and evidently I threw too much away and iPhoto lost its mind. I did a search (wish I had done that before I deleted photos) and found out that you are not supposed to trash more than 100 photos at a time. Arrgh!

I was able to find the photos I took today but the photo of the chickens only showed up in the large size so you can click on it and it will enlarge. Screamer and Pastey are the Light Brahmas drinking with one of the no name Dark Brahmas.

Kristine will be calling soon, Morgan is due back from the groomers, and I have to quit typing this and go cook dinner.

iPhoto update: I finally got iPhoto working again, but I had to trash the last two days photos. Live and learn.

(May 6, 2009)

[4 eggs so far today]
My egg count may be going down because of the broody hens?

~:>
Smiles

7 comments:

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

Hi Callie! It seems like you're regaining your energy with all that you're doing--At least I hope so!! I really enjoy the pictures of your chickens...I live vicariously through people like you who have them because as you well know, I wish that I did--Someday, someday!! Take care of yourself!!

lisa said...

I hate it when chickens get broody! I usually use picasa on the web for my pictures. I want to try flickr but haven't yet. You have a good day!

Jen said...

My chickens love drinking the muddy water too, weird. When I pour out the water pan to add fresh water they run over to drink it up off the ground, lol

Chicken Boys said...

What's a broody hen? I hear about it a lot. But the only time my hens get broody is when they actually have eggs to sit on. And even then it can be a chore to get them to stay on the eggs. I had some chicks hatch a week late because she kept getting off for too long. I was about to throw them out when out popped a few little heads! I think mine like eating a little too much.
~Randy

John Going Gently said...

callie...broodiness is catching....I have 4 now all trying to sit.....
they are driving me batty

Gus, Louie and Callie said...

That planting bed is really looking good. So the chickens are happy being outside now?
Hurry home Morgan. You have chickens to watch..

Big Sloppy Kisses
Gus, Louie and Callie

Mike said...

Darn broody hens! I just hate that. We can never snap ours out of it.