Category: Animals

When we stopped getting eggs a few weeks ago, I thought the hens might be laying somewhere in the barn, but I couldn’t them anywhere.

A couple of days ago, I noticed that Brown Hen wasn’t hanging around with the other hens.  She didn’t even come to the porch when I fed the cats in the afternoon.  And the next morning she was out pecking at the cat food before I had opened the coop.

So I knew she had spent the day and night sitting on a clutch of eggs somewhere on the farm.

Later that afternoon, when I saw White Hen peering down the long space between the barn wall and the hay bale, even though I couldn’t make Brown Hen out in the darkness, I knew she was there.

Since we don’t have a rooster, I didn’t have to worry about the eggs being fertilized, but a broody hen will often not come off the nest for days.  Which means she is eating and drinking very little or not at all.

When the hens lay in the coop, I collect the eggs so they don’t have them to try and hatch.  But when they get the urge, because of hormones, instinct, or a change in light such as the days getting shorter as they are now, a hen might become broody.  And like Brown Hen, lay eggs with the intention of hatching them, fertilized or not.

After Brown Hen left the eggs, I put them in a bucket and carried them out into the woods.  I left them in a clearing alongside a deer trail.  I’m hoping they’re still good enough for an animal to eat.

Fate is very aware of them. On our way back from our walk in the woods she ran over to them and sniffed each one as if counting them.  We’ll check on them tomorrow and see if anyone found them a good meal.

Lulu and Fanny are never far from each other.  They’re sisters and have been together their whole life.  They’re 17 years old and can live to be in their forties.  Hopefully, we’ll grow old together.

Eager, crazy Fate.  With spittle on her face and her tongue hanging down she still wants to run around the sheep.  I don’t know if she’d ever stop if I didn’t make her.

Brown Hen would always rather have cat food than chicken food, even if it’s corn on the cob. I have to keep an eye on her, she’s always the first one to run to the back porch to try and get some of Minnie and Flo’s food.

I did chase Brown Hen away after I took the video and let Flo finish her food. She only ate a bit more, then Brown Hen came back and finished it off.

The apple trees are full this year.  Especially the crab apple that hangs over the south pasture.  When I let the sheep out to graze the first thing they do is run to the place where the apples fall and gobble them up.

Even our Hydrangea is affected by the apples that have been rotting in the soil since we planted it.  The flowers have always been a greenish-white, this is the first year they’re turning pink.