Weekend Update

Just a quick update, Sundays are always hectic here because we find out just how much we didn't get done over the weekend that we should have.

The first 4 feet of the fence around the brooder pen is up. It has been raining so much recently that it is hard to get anything done outside. I have to run to Lowes to get the other 3 foot of fencing and to get some 1x3s and hinges for the gate. As it stands now I haven't cut the gate wire off the rest we are using for the pen and just have it bungee'd to the chicken yard as a temporary gate. I moved the 1 hen coop out to the brooder pen and moved the setting hen into it. She was none too happy when I grabbed her, but settled right down when I put her on the nest in the 1 hen coop.

We had saved 11 green eggs and 3 brown ones for her to incubate. My plan was to just move the eggs she had been setting on the last couple days in with the ones we had saved. I had a surprise when I finally got her out of the nest box, somehow she was setting on 8 eggs.

This past week is I had been checking the nest boxes frequently. When I noticed the broody hen was off the nest, I would grab the eggs. She would then set on whatever nest had the most eggs. On Friday and Saturday I had not been able to check on her very often, so I never caught her off the nest. Obviously other hens did, since she was setting in the most popular box, and quickly popped in there to deposit their eggs. Then, she would come back and find a few more eggs to keep warm. I had assumed she was only setting on 1 or 2 and was quite suprised to find 8 underneath her.

Now she is shut up in the little coop with no one to bother her; everything she needs is in that little 2ft x 2ft box. During the day, I will open the coop door to let her have access to the yard if she wants to stretch her legs but, I don't expect to see her out much.

In about 7 days we will candle the eggs and look for signs of life. Now I just have to find out how the build a candler.

Matthew