Broody hen

In a previous post, I briefly mentioned we had a broody hen. Fingers crossed I think/hope we still have. One of the Dorkings has been wandering around clucking for a couple of weeks now but at the weekend took it a step further and took herself off to the nest box, where she remained, screeching at any of the other hens who attempted to get too close. We left her for a few days, as she is young, to see if she was really committed and she does seem to be, just leaving the nest once a day to eat, drink etc.

So Monday evening we put together an emergency broody coop, not ideal but it will do the job this time and next time we will be more prepared.
The trouble is at present we seem to be running to keep one step ahead of the livestock as far as fencing and housing is concerned.Hopefully this time next year everything will be in place and life will be a little easier.

So today Sylvia, as she has now been named, was removed from the henhouse, dusted with mite powder and placed in her new coop with two ceramic eggs. If she is still broody tomorrow I shall phone around for a clutch of hatching eggs.
We have decided to try to obtain some heavy breed eggs i.e Cornish Game, Sussex, Dorking as a start to our breeding programme.

I do hope she will have a little more success than I seem to have with the incubator.