Maggie's little helpers

Nobody can say that our little flock don't help each other out whenever they can.   For starters, most of them will squeeze in with Maggie and lay another egg for her to add to her collection.   Actually, Irene and Titian draw the line at doing this.   Well it would be an impossibly tight fit and they both like their comfort, so they lay their large eggs in the nest next door.

We originally intended to allow Maggie to brood just a couple of eggs, but this has grown to 5 (maybe 6 by the time I've finished writing this).   It's easy enough to work out which egg belongs to Pom-Pom and remove it.   Hers are snowy white and elongated.   But both Araucanas sneaked in their identical contributions and Tu-Tu added two, too. 

Tu-Tu with last year's brood (Punk, Rebecca and Rocky)

We lift Maggie off her nest two or three times every day.   She will then have a quick snack, a long drink and a good dustbath.   The moment she's out of the coop, Tu-Tu dashes in and sits on the eggs to keep them warm.  Isn't that nice of her.   However, as soon as Maggie sets foot in the coop, Tu-Tu has the good sense to get up and go.

Last year it was Tu-Tu who was broody and Maggie helped out now and then, but quickly lost interest.   It will hopefully remain the other way round this year, as I really don't want two broody hens.

A pair of broody chickens

Tu-Tu is seriously considering becoming broody again.   For a while we’ve managed to change her mind, by lifting her out of the nest box and putting her back into the run every time one of us goes down to chat with the chickens.   It only took a few days before she gave it up, but then Maggie decided that she would go broody too.   

Maggie

We took the same action with her, but when we opened the nest box yesterday, we found both Maggie and Tu-Tu jammed into the same nest box.   Tu-Tu had tucked her head under Maggie’s wing in an effort to make her so uncomfortable, she’d leave.   But Maggie was quite determined to stay put.   We were equally determined that they’d both leave and, much to the annoyance of the pair of them, we put the duo back into the run.

We played this game last year and the result was a draw.   Maggie lost interest, Tu-Tu didn’t and we ended up getting 3 fertile Araucana eggs for her to take care of.