I had a feeling that any day I would find Dolly broody again. This morning proved to be the day. When I opened the coop, Dolly remained inside sitting in one of the nesting boxes. I gently scooped her up and brought her out to the run to enjoy some scratch with the rest of the girls.
We had planned a day out off Cape so I checked on the girls before we left. Inside the right nesting box, Dolly and Feathers were sitting together, while Autumn was next to them in the middle box. I closed the boxes, as this could only mean one thing – Dolly was broody again. We hit the road around 9:30am and did not return until a little after 5pm. The first thing that I did was check on the girls, especially Dolly.
As suspected, I found Dolly in that same nesting box. Underneath of her I felt an egg. I took one out. Then another. Then another, and then 2 more! She was sitting on 5 eggs. She is getting to be a professional broody girl. Over the course of the day, she must have gently rolled the other girls’ freshly laid eggs from the neighboring nesting boxes into hers. I know they are not fertile and would never become chicks. Yet, I did not feel any better about taking them from her.
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| Dolly’s collection |
Photo Credit: Tilly’s Nest
2 thoughts on “An Eggcellent Collection”
The poor thing. That's got to be so tough having all those hormones running through her system. I'm curious, do you do anything to try and break her of her broodiness? Or just let it run its course?
Flock Mistress, I usually just let it run it's course. She is broody about every 4 weeks. I just really try and keep a close eye on her to make sure she is not withering away. Poor girl, she just is made for motherhood!