Brenda the Broody

[Sheepshape]

So....I decided that I would expand my little flock and set 13 eggs (Brahma, Brahma cross and 'mongrel') from my own hens on the incubator. After 7 days, 11 looked good, and Brenda decided to go broody (first time broody Gold Partridge Brahma hatched last summer).

Dilemma.....give the eggs to the broody, leave them on the incubator and try to get her to adopt, give her more eggs, or 'break the broodiness'. I decided to leave the eggs on the incubator and Brenda in the corner of the sheep shed where she had decided to sit. Now her site to sit wasn't necessarily the most suitable. It was where she always laid....just through on of the sheep entrances, on the edge of a lambing pen, and regularly surrounded by sheep and lambs up until a few weeks ago. Miraculously her eggs usually survived, though she was chased mercilessly by playful lambs. There were still 5 bottle lambs attempting to dislodge her.

So.....I set up a brood pen with sheep hurdles, feed bags and a plant net over the top to deter the cats. Brenda sat proudly atop a rubber egg, a stone and 3 bread crusts (only the rubber egg was given by me). She clucked to and turned everything.

So 5 days back the hatch commenced. I waited for the first chick to dry and then took it carefully and placed it under Brenda's wing. Clucks, purrs, and proud noises from Brenda. 2 more hatched....I placed them by Brenda's breast. She raised herself up, clucking loudly. And so it went. 10 chicks hatched over 24 hours, and Brenda got into a routine of me entering the pen, she would then stand, and so all 10 were adopted.

So here she is....if only adoptions of all animals were this easy!

 

[Ducklover2]

 

[Bruce]

I wish!! I couldn't get my 6 from Meyer under Anais. Worked great with Zorra in 2015.

 

[Sheepshape]

Brenda is doing SO well. If only the lambs had been as easy. A couple of mothers even rejected one of their own twins and would not take them back under any circumstances.

I had quite a scare yesterday on going into the shed.....chick feathers on the ground. The feathers looked like they had come from the black chick (by Brenda's beak in the pic) My relief was enormous on finding Brenda with all her chicks, safe and sound.( There's garden bird netting over the top of her improvised pen to keep the domestic cats out.).Then the culprit became clear....a sparrow hawk. It (probably she) was trapped near the roof and made its way out through a roof ventilator when we flustered her . On looking around the shed we found the remains of a number of chicks and adult sparrows which had been nesting in the roof. It seems that the little hawk must have flown in when the doors were open whilst chasing a sparrow or swallow etc. and then flown into the roof area. They apparently don't have the instinct to stoop back down again through the doors, so stay up high in the roof area. Well we must have shut her in what she considered to be a larder when we had shut the shed doors on the previous night, and she had eaten her fill. When we came in the morning, she just happened upon the ventilator when panicking in the roof, and found her way out. As they don't normally come indoors, we don't expect her to return. It was, however, a nasty shock.

Brenda seems to have a real mix of chicks.....Brahmas, Naked Necks and 'mixed race'(who often turn out to have the most interesting plumage). Now the wait to see how many roosters!

 

[Alaskan]

Breda is gorgeous.

 

[Granny Heeney]

She sat on bread crusts! Hee-hee-hee! I see what you mean about hyper-broodiness!

 

[RollingAcres]

Awww chicks! Brenda is beautiful!

 

[Sheepshape]

These are those chicks now (same pic. as in my other thread about chickens, cat and dog)

She has two 'daughters' who look very like her in the middle of the pic, they were the chicks with the stripe down their backs at the the top right of the first pic.The little black chick is now the grey pullet right at the back of the pic. above this text. The two Naked Neck chicks are still Naked Necks (of course), The Blue Partridge Brahma cockerel on the extreme left in the lower pic. was the light coloured chick second from the left of the chicks. The Blue Partridge Brahma girl in the lower pic. (to the right of the light Naked Neck and behind the cockerel on the right) was the chick to the right of the black chick. The large cockerel at the front in the lower pic.was the chick on the extreme left.The slightly 'ginger' chick at the bottom of the top pic. doesn't appear in the lower pic.....he's a very large and independent cockerel with brown pencilled feathers.

 

[Granny Heeney]

I'm falling in love with the blue partridges