junebug gets broody

when the weather starts to get warm, hens will sit on top of their clutch of eggs to get them ready for hatching. this happens whether or not there is a rooster involved.

our hens certainly do not have a rooster around. but the weather is starting to get warm. recently i was out in the yard checking on the chickens. there were only three of them out and about so i was not surprised to see june sitting in the nest in the shed. when i went out two hours later she was still there. how odd, i thought, that she hadn't yet laid an egg. going out a handful of hours later and seeing her still there upon the nest i knew: junebug was getting broody.

at first jbp and i thought we would just leave her there and let her figure it out. hours passed. eleanor climbed in beside her to lay her own egg. jackie stood there and squawked at her for hogging up the whole nest for a very long time. i poked around her with the handle of a broom and she ruffled her feathers, pecked viciously at the handle, and let out what can only be described as a terrifying, primal, prehistoric screech.finally, and after some internet research that explained little junebug would indeed sit on that nest for a good two weeks, jbp decided to take action. coat on. gloves on. he went to remove junebug from her birthing nest--a scary feat since we saw the way she attacked the broom. she was not pleased. we put her in the run where she sat--exactly how she was sitting on the nest--for a good while. she continued to screech and squawk and voice her displeasure while the three other ladies stayed out of her way and inside the coop.

after having to remove her three other times over the next two days, we believe junebug has finally realized she is not fertile, there will be no chicks, and her time is better spent scratching the dirt, eating bugs, and leaving the eggs for us.