Hen pecked!

My neighbour's away again and I'm in charge of chicken feeding  - Yippee free eggs for me!  There is a slight problem though this time, one of the hens is broody and apparently they need special handling so HP and I popped round to see what we had to do last night.  When C opened the coop this big, black hen was all plumped up sitting on some eggs.  C has marked these with a red pen and they are not to be eaten :( as they have little chicks inside :) The problem is that when all the other hens start laying this broody one will gather them up under her and the one's marked with a cross might not get enough warmth and then die...oh no!  So we have to lift her up, sort the eggs out and take away the ones without the red cross.  Sounds easy enough.....but she's quite big and she pecks a lot to protect the eggs.  HP reckons we should wear a gauntlet to protect ourselves!

I'm secretly wishing that the eggs hatch while they're away and then I get to look at real Easter chicks and maybe even keep one or two....

Sharon Tuersley : 03 Apr 2007 11:55 |  Comments (2) |  Report a problem