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Friday, August 12, 2011

DOROTHY, THE BUFF ORPINGTON HEN, DOES IT AGAIN

HELLO & Welcome to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! For the past 5 days, counting today, Dorothy, my pet and favorite hen, has stayed in a bottom level nest box and has gone broody again! She is the Buff Orpington hen that went broody in the spring and was sitting on the golf balls that I then swapped out for nine 2-day old chicks I ordered from the feed store after 23 days, which are now almost ready to start laying that I mentioned earlier this week. I got busy yesterday and emailed a member of the West TN Poultry Club and today she brought me 8-fertile Cuckoo Marans eggs. I do not want any more birds here but this will make the little Mama happy again, won't really cost me anything, except she is not laying anyway and this will break her from being broody and fulfill her motherhood need once again.
At least I know she will always be a good brooder for future need if she will hang on for a few years and nothing out of the ordinary happens to her. We will see how she does with real eggs now instead of golf balls. When I took her from the chicken house this morning and isolated her back into the converted rabbit cage and add on secluded nesting area, I took the two golf balls she was sitting on with her and added them to the nest I made of wheat straw & 8-eggs and she sat straight down on the entire thing just as happy as she could be and went to work to hatch her "brood"! So you are now assigned to "hatchery watch" with me...today is day one...mark your calendars! 20 or so to go now.
I also harvested just at 127 tomatoes today...I have not had time to process anything today but will tomorrow. I am free all day and can concentrate on that. I have given away a lot of them today to neighbors and yesterday, having picked around 47 then, gave most of them away as well. That has been the point here at the urban farm of planting so many plants almost to overcrowding is to help feed so many neighbors as well as give some to the local soup kitchen. Next year though, I am not looking to plant so much but to make the garden a little more formal and less FULL and crowded...giving less to share but ease of tending for me is my plan.
So I will leave you today with day one of hatch watch underway with our ongoing affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

2 comments:

  1. I only wish I were your neighbor or friend.

    All three of my hens seem to take turns going broody. If I don't keep a close watch, Thelma, in particular, will sit on all three eggs. They all seem resolute in their desire to hatch. Until I get the pen secure from raccoons, they still come in at night! I do not want to transport a hen on eggs. She would let me, but I cannot carry that weight--cage, hen, and eggs--up the steps at night and back down each morning. My calendar is marked!

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  2. We will count the days together...LOL!

    Mike

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