Hello, Dolly!

Meet Dolly! Dolly started sitting on a nest this week, but her only egg was a wooden egg! 

I do not know whether Dolly was pushed off her nest by the other hens, or whether that Broody Mood hit her, and she just started sitting on the nearest egg-shaped object. LOL!

One puts wooden eggs in some of the nesting boxes to help new layers or flighty laying hens keep in mind why they are sitting in a nesting box.

From watching Marianne inside for a year, I have learned how short her attention span can be when it comes to laying eggs!

But back to Dolly. The other hens, of her size, have not run her off her nest, so we slipped three eggs over two days into her nest with the wooden egg.

I have learned that chicks hatched and raised by mother hens survive the many predators far better than incubator-hatched chickens, so no broody mood will ever be wasted around here.

If everything goes calmly, I will be looking for baby chicks from under Dolly in 21-ish days. I will keep you posted. 

Henrietta, smaller than the large hens, was run off her nest by those bossy larger hens for several days in a row, and her broody mood was broken. She will "go broody" again this spring. Cochin hens make wonderful mamas!

Photo by Lindi Turnipseed