Miss Jane has gone broody.
She sits on the nest all day if I let her.
Poor thing also looks like she might be molting, though it is very hard to tell with her, she's lost so many feathers already.
I read on BackyardChickens that one of the reasons they go broody, is that their body temperature rises and a hormone kicks in that makes them want to raise babies. Even when there's not a fertile egg in sight.
Wooden ones will do just fine.
Anyway, one of the tricks someone said to try was to put ice cubes under them to lower their body temperature, theoretically to make them stop producing the hormone.
I tried that yesterday, and of course ended up with a damp nest, leading to moldy hay. Not good.
Cleaned it all out and got fresh hay.
Today I remembered (I'm a slow thinker) that I had an ice pack in the freezer. That's the blue thing she is cuddling up to.
I took it away a little bit ago to re-freeze it and coaxed her off the nest with some canned corn.
But as soon as I turned my back… there she was, firmly settled on the wooden eggs.
Sigh.
She really hunkers down too. Just like a toad in a hole. You have to pry her out of there.
She takes her auditions for motherhood seriously.
As a matter of fact, Miss Jane is pretty serious about everything.
I'm sure Miss Lydia annoys the feathers off her. Miss Lydia is the coop clown.
I'll let you know if the ice pack trick works.
(You get weirder by the minute, you know that?)
Yep.
It's fun too.
I read on BackyardChickens that one of the reasons they go broody, is that their body temperature rises and a hormone kicks in that makes them want to raise babies. Even when there's not a fertile egg in sight.
Wooden ones will do just fine.
Anyway, one of the tricks someone said to try was to put ice cubes under them to lower their body temperature, theoretically to make them stop producing the hormone.
I tried that yesterday, and of course ended up with a damp nest, leading to moldy hay. Not good.
Cleaned it all out and got fresh hay.
Today I remembered (I'm a slow thinker) that I had an ice pack in the freezer. That's the blue thing she is cuddling up to.
I took it away a little bit ago to re-freeze it and coaxed her off the nest with some canned corn.
But as soon as I turned my back… there she was, firmly settled on the wooden eggs.
Sigh.
She really hunkers down too. Just like a toad in a hole. You have to pry her out of there.
She takes her auditions for motherhood seriously.
As a matter of fact, Miss Jane is pretty serious about everything.
I'm sure Miss Lydia annoys the feathers off her. Miss Lydia is the coop clown.
I'll let you know if the ice pack trick works.
(You get weirder by the minute, you know that?)
Yep.
It's fun too.