This is what a broody hen looks like 😂 - Lifestyle Monday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
Over the past month or so, a certain little someone has grown a little bit moody. Cough, cough, cough, Roast!
We were initially quite worried about her because after making a couple ventures out into the garden, we soon realised that everyone was out of the pen except Roast. We looked in the egg box and saw her sitting fluffed up on the hay not willing to move a muscle and so we kind of concluded that she might just be an ill hen. The next day, my dad went through the strenuous effort of making her a little sick bay in the corner of the green house using some old boxes and he even made her a little nest of hay that she could use in the meantime. All in all, we thought it was best to isolate Roast, just in case she made the other chickens sick.
However, although we've had Roast for around 8 months now, she still doesn't like us because she runs away every time we try to pick her up and she glares at us like a moody toddler. So when my dad tried to pick her up to put her in the greenhouse, she was having none of it and flew right out of her allocated corner. In fact, at the time, I was self isolating because of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in my school so I was doing online classes on Zoom in my living room. All I could see out of the corner of my eye was my dad chasing this flapping chicken around the garden. It was hilarious and insulting at the same time.😂🐔
We decided to look up the symptoms of Roast's conditions because it was obvious that after she escaped, she was not really ill and the top search suggestion that came up was that Roast was brooding! Yes, she actually believed that the eggs she was incubating were actually going to hatch into chicks. Hence why everytime we tried to pick her up to put her outside she fluffed up her feathers and was super defensive. So whilst Parsnip and Sunday were happily scratching away at the mud in the garden when we let them out, Roast was sitting plump on her nest, acting a bit lazy I must say.
In order to resolve the situation, we've had to force her out of the pen. My sister works for this lady who owns her own farm and she said that when her hens were brooding, which was more often than we care to think, she put them outside until they eventually got over it. We did the same and my God it was a chore! We would get roast out of her pen and sit her nicely on the grass and before we new it, she was gathering the closest leaves to her, picking them up and depositing them nicely beside her to create another nest. Granted, it wasn't a brilliant nest but it was still a nest of a sort. Then she would slowly get up, flap her wings violently, and flying 2 metres across the garden back to the pen again. We had to close the door to the inside pen on multiple occasions to prevent her from doing this.
What's probably more ironic is that the eggs that Roast was sitting on were not even hers. Hens tend to stop laying over the winter because they rely on light to do so and the days are shorter during the winter. However, on closer inspection, we soon realised that it was Sunday and Parsnip who were going in the pen to lay and not Roast. This meant that Roast was incubating eggs that weren't even hers and she was being super moody about it. I say this modestly, but chickens can be a bit dumb sometimes. 😂
Luckily, Roast has recovered from her temper tantrum and we didn't have another situation like with Parsnip and her hurt foot but it was still stressful while it lasted. Later, my dad found an accurate video of a hen brooding, initially thinking it was a video that gave advice on how to stop hens brooding. I know he found it by accident but I can honestly not represent this more accurately. If you think it was easy for us to deal with this for a month, you NEED to watch this video! You will understand our pain.
Doris Ledet
Have you ever seen a broody chicken? 😂 What other weird ailments have your pets been through? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
Tap one of the reaction boxes below to let me know what you thought of this post. It would really help me to make some improvements in the future!
Be sure to follow and subscribe so that you don't miss anymore of my brilliant posts and share this article with a friend who might enjoy it too!
See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving your comments! I really enjoy reading your positive and constructive messages. They really make my day! 💜