Well, the girls must know Spring is in the air. Except for Dolly with her new brood of seven chicks, all of my Silkie Bantams are experiencing degrees of broodiness. Yesterday, Meesha and Autumn monopolized two of the nesting boxes. Today, Feathers joined them occupying all three. Tilly has taken on the role of nesting box police officer. When she is not distracted by treats and scratching, she is inside of the coop chasing the little girls off the nests and out of the boxes. Today, I found a traffic jam, a line waiting for the boxes. Oyster Cracker was in one box, Autumn in the other. The other two Silkies were at the door waiting to return to their boxes!
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| Autumn in the right box |
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| Oyster Cracker in the left |
As the two girls waited by the door, a lot of growling was occurring between the Silkies. Oyster Cracker on the other hand was getting down to business laying one of her large gorgeous brown eggs. I know that when I return to the coop in a little while, one of the tiny Silkies will be perched upon Oyster Cracker’s humongous warm egg.
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| Will you hurry up already! |
This morning I also had the pleasure of meeting Maryann and her husband Bob. Her flock of Buff Orpingtons can be found here.We actually live only a few miles from each another and never knew that one another existed until we both discovered each other through our love of backyard chickens. We had a very lovely time this morning. I introduced all of our chickens to them. The chickens were happy to have some visitors. Chocolate loves showing off his beautiful girls to others. He even crowed about them to Mary Ann and Bob. Of course their visit would not have been complete with seeing Dolly and her baby chicks. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to connect with people and share your experiences both good and bad with others. As she held Percy, it seemed as if she already had a special connection with the chick. It was a very touching moment.
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| A gift of Spring from Maryann and Bob |
I was also touched by their thoughtfulness. They brought the most beautiful arrangement of Spring pansies for me and my flock. We made plans for future visits and I will be featuring her flock in my Tour De Coop series sometime this Spring. They say it is supposed to snow on Cape Cod today, our first day of Spring. Today, I don’t mind. My heart has been warmed by this experience! Once again, another reason to keep backyard chickens.
Photo credits: Tilly’s Nest
6 thoughts on “Spring Visitors and Traffic Jams”
We had a lovely visit this morning. I was thrilled to meet you and your flock. Watching Dolly and her chicks is seeing nature at its finest!!
Thank you and see you soon!
Silkies are funny in their broodiness. Luna, our neighbor, keeps them. One, named Silly, constantly tries to hatch-out a pill bottle. When Luna takes the bottle away from her, she seeks it out and moves it back to her favorite nest to sit on. The others will happily sit on hay, golf balls, ping-pong balls, whatever.
Maryann, it was so wonderful finally meeting you in person this morning. I had a fantastic time.
Cyclingchicken~That is a hoot! These silkies have, to say the least, been very entertaining. I just feel bad for the kids. They wanted to dye Silkie eggs for Easter.
Awww, love hearing about your flock. I have just had one of my girls (I have two hens and a rooster- dominiques) go broody for the first time ever!!! I'm so excited about the possibility of having baby chicks! (need to get the chick starter and supplies…) I'm worried though because she keeps getting up off the nest in the evening to free range with the others. She get up off it in the morning for a while too. Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens…
I was worried about the same things too. Our eggs survived despite temperatures in the 20s and 30s at times. It is okay for the hen to leave the nest a few times per day. Once morning, one of the jealous hens stole the eggs and rolled them into the center of the coop. When I found them they were ice cold. I returned them to Dolly and they still hatched 🙂 Good luck!!