Category Archives: broody hen

One week after chicks due

Posted on May 5, 2012 by jkmcintyre

One week has passed since the chicks were due to hatch. Corroborated by several web resources, chicks will not hatch more than a few days passed the incubation period (I.e., 21 d due, 24 d max). So this morning I … Continue reading →

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One-dead-baby-chicken, two-dead-baby-chicken, three-dead-baby-chicken …

Posted on April 30, 2012 by jkmcintyre

The day I found that first dead baby chicken (Thursday) I left town for a conference in British Columbia. On the train that evening, I got a call from the homestead. Our friend Darryl said, “There is an egg with … Continue reading →

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One is the loneliest number

Posted on April 26, 2012 by jkmcintyre

This morning I found a beautiful, perfect, dead baby chick in the nest box with the fertilized eggs. Down still matted, eyes still shut tight. Calamity Jane, the would-be mother hen, was sitting on a clean empty nest next door. … Continue reading →

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Broody Hen

Posted on April 6, 2012 by jkmcintyre
[caption id="attachment_1505" align="aligncenter" width="425" caption="Calamity Jane, our Dark Brahma, went broody in February"][/caption]

My young hen Calamity Jane sits in the nest box. She has done very little else for weeks now. She spends the day in there when the other chickens are out having dirt baths and fighting over the compost pile. She spends the night in there when the other chickens are sleeping on the roost. She makes distraught cluck-cluck-cluck sounds when we force her off the nest. There is no doubt about it – she is broody… Continue reading →

Posted in baby chickens, broody hen, chicken coop / run, chickens, eggs, nest boxes | Tagged , , | 6 Comments