Broody loves the box

Posted on May 25, 2012 by jkmcintyre

After finishing construction of the broody box Wednesday afternoon, I eagerly awaited dusk when I would transfer Calamity Jane and her brood. She hadn’t particularly noticed me putting the eggs under her that morning (I often root around under her for a random egg she might be sitting on), so I wasn’t very worried she would reject the eggs, but there was still a chance the new nest and relatively new eggs would be a bad combo.

Eggs in the new broody box

I decided to give her a chance to see where she was before full dark settled in. Out I crept with the egg carton. I rooted out the seven eggs, trying to maintain them in the same horizontal position in which she had been incubating them, and brought them over to the new nest. Then I grabbed CJ, gently extracting her from the tiny nest box she had been calling home (11 3/4″ wide by 12″ deep by 15″ tall tapering to 12″ tall at the back).

She allowed me to carry her over to the broody box and place her down on the fresh shaved wood of the new nest. She looked at the eggs a bit, then walked over to the food and water. Had a snack, enjoyed some sips, came back to inspect the eggs, ran away, came back – and then she laid a giant turd half-down on the eggs. Nice. As I scooped the two turds out, I started to worry that this might not go well.

But I put the lid back on the box and retreated to observe. She got back in the nest box and settled down in the very back corner, like she would in the tiny nest box. Except that in this box (24″x 15″ x 18″), sitting in this position mean that only a few of the eggs were under her. She used her beak to scoop some of them under her breast, but they didn’t all make it in. I wondered if the ones she had half-pooped on were among those currently excluded. I watched her try again to get eggs under her, then went back there and shoved the rest underneath. After all, this is animal husbandry not The Nature of Things.

She did not reject the eggs I put underneath her and she has been calmly sitting on them for two days now. Clearly she is taking breaks (poop build-up outside the nest by the food and water), so all is well – for now…

CJ happily setting on her new eggs in her new box

[UPDATE: Day 8]

Posted in baby chickens, broody hen, chicken coop / run, chickens, nest boxes, update | Tagged | 3 Comments

Building my broody a box

Posted on May 23, 2012 by jkmcintyre

Calamity Jane has been broody for three months now. Although she failed to successfully hatch the fertile donor eggs in April, she was not clearly at fault, so I have decided to let her try again.

Miniature goats at Bradley Farm

Yesterday I stopped by the Bradley Farm near my work in Puyallup. I petted a pair of adorable miniature goats and purchased a mix of fertile eggs; Black Copper Marans, Lavender Orpington, Blue-laced red Wyandotte, and Delaware. It’s not like I can keep all these chicks, even if the hatch, but I still want to see them!

Mix of fertile eggs from the Bradley Farm

Among the lessons learned from April’s trail of tears was that I should isolate my broody so that 1) she can’t abandon the nest and 2) other hens can’t mess with her eggs. Another suggestion was a larger nest (mine are a bit sub-standard and CJ is a big girl).

With the eggs in hand, it was past time to build a Broody Box where CJ and her eggs would be safe. I looked at pictures online to get some ideas, came up with three designs of increasing complexity, and went with the middle one (after Scott’s reaction to my chosen model 3 made me realize I was being unnecessarily ambitious).

It took me 6 hours to build the broody box, using mostly materials I had lying about the garage. First I built a frame from 2 x 2 s, similar to those I built for the chicken tractor train.

Nearly-finished broody box with cedar siding on nest box

Next I added a floor and siding to one end to hold the over-size nest box. The 100-year old cedar siding I used from our bathroom remodel still smelled delicious when I cut it to size. I figure it will help prevent pest problems. I gave the nest box a 3″ lip to help hold in bedding and eggs, and added a small floor outside the lip to prevent day-old chicks from falling to the ground. (Ojala that we get that far!)

Extra-large nest box with lip and platform

I built a door that would open from the side, allowing the chicken to come out if I prop it open during the day. Chicken wire is stapled to the remaining sides and top, except where a removable solid roof prevents the nest from getting wet and allows easy access the eggs/hen.

Finished broody box with removable lid and chicken door

I gave CJ the eggs this afternoon and plan to move the whole brooding family tonight. Hopefully she will take to the new nest!

[UPDATE: Broody loves the box]

Posted in baby chickens, broody hen, chicken coop / run, chickens, DIY, eggs, update | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Turning in Cover Crops

Posted on May 16, 2012 by jkmcintyre

Each autumn I try to do right by my garden; clean up from the harvest, plant cover crops on summer beds, deep mulch spring beds. Usually I fall quite short of my goals. I wait until the first freeze kills the last tomatoes, the last peppers, the last winter squash. By then it’s usually late to plant cover crops.

It is recommended that cover crops be 1) Grown until they flower (to maximize nutrient accumulation), and 2) Turned in 3-6 weeks before planting (to allow decomposition).

Crimson Clover Cover Crop

Crimson clover bed after turning in

Crimson clover bed 4 weeks after turning in

Last autumn I managed a deep mulch of leaves covered with burlap on one little section of bed, crimson clover cover crops on two beds, and fava beans as cover on my three raised boxes. It was, as per usual, late to sow these seeds, resulting in somewhat pathetic growth over much of the winter. In spring, when I should have been starting to think about turning in the cover crops, the clover and favas started to really grow. By April they were luscious. By May they started to flower.

Gorgeous fava flowers

Fava cover crop beds

Fava stubs and cut leaves before covering with dirt

Fava cover crop buried in soil with top dressing to prevent chicken scratching

The fava flowers were so beautiful that I put off turning them in until mid-May, which is really late when you want to plant the bed in tomatoes! The raised beds were low on soil anyways, so rather than turning in the crop I decided to prune it to stubble, layer it with the cut vegetation, and cover it with new soil from a several-year-old pile of decomposing sod.

Qualitatively, the beds with cover crops have soil that is rich with worms, moist, and easy to work. By contrast, the beds with no cover crops are hard and dry. Similar story for the bed with deep leaf mulch.

The clover bed is ready to plant. Ollas stand at the ready. Let’s make it happen!

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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 took away the remaining three eggs. I dug a hole in the blueberry patch, and, as I prepared to bury them, I couldn’t help myself – I had to know. I cracked open each egg, prepared to see a nasty decomposing embryo. Instead I found yolks. Watery, homogeneous yolks. No sign of baby chickens. The eggs were never fertilized!

I apologized to Calamity Jane for deceiving her into believing she had three more chances to figure it out. What next? I am tempted to try again. But it begs the question: Is it CJ who wants the chicks? Or is it me?

Posted in baby chickens, broody hen, chickens, eggs, update | Tagged , , | 3 Comments