Ten years ago I would never have thought that I would be the keeper of Backyard Chickens. It’s been fun. What started out as a curiosity to see what it would be like to keep them has become a hobby/pets.
Silly birds that have not much of a brain can cackle like old women telling dirty jokes.
Our girls are layers and last year they had a boy join their ranks. The last time something like that happened, that boy turned out to be a bad boy. He was mean and a brute. Do you want to know what happens to birds like him? They don’t stay around. I chopped off his head and served him from the backyard barbecue. Yup, he was still a backyard chicken.
The new guy arrived last year with his eleven sisters. He didn’t have much color, so we weren’t sure at first as to whether he was a he or a she. Then his tail feathers started coming in. You know, the one’s that curl downward that make the chicken appear regal.
Well, those girls knew what happened to the last guy. They plucked every last curled feather from his tail right before he started to crow. Silly birds.
Alright, so they wanted to keep this guy. So we let him stay. He’s been pretty well behaved and maintain the flock’s safety. They are his girls.
We’ve been getting about six or seven dozen eggs a week from them. I thought there should be more as it has seemed to slack off lately. I had attributed this to my mowing the grass about their pen. Strange noises, sudden changes in weather, or hawks flying overhead can make a flock stop laying. I accepted the fact as what it could be.
Yesterday, we made a discovery.
The girls have begun hoarding their eggs. They have them in a part of the coop we don’t look into much since the girls seldom use that part of the coop. When I looked in the window, I saw two eggs. I opened the door to gather them and saw clutches of eggs.
There were 42 eggs collected that were divided between the two nests. We don’t know how long they have been there, but we do know they are sitting on them. Looks like our pets are going to have to sacrifice their kids if they decided to multiply. I’m thinking we should see the first egg hatch within the next 2-3 weeks. Maybe around 15 days from now.
If they hatch, I take pictures.
Lydia Clark 