29 June 2018

Another go at hatching chicks

Well, little Pekin bantam Cookie has gone broody again.  She's been sitting on the nest for a couple days now--I keep taking all but one of the eggs the other chickens have been laying, leaving her one fresh one every day to keep her motivated while I source some fertilized eggs for her.

And I have been given some eggs, very generously, by a colleague.  I was led to believe I was getting Orpington eggs until she actually handed them to me, and when I asked (as they were all lovely white eggs) she said they were Leghorn eggs.

As I have mentioned previously, we have one white Leghorn chicken, name of Florry, who is a champion egg layer, but also a champion escape artist.  This bird can hop fences like they're not there.  And she's a dedicated worker, i.e. extremely destructive, with her scratching and pecking.  Do I really want a potential six more Florries?  On one hand, there's the amazing egg laying ability (we wouldn't have had any eggs last winter if it weren't for Florry).  On the other hand there's the chasing of the chickens out of the garden every day--sometimes multiple times a day.

I said to the husband, we need to talk seriously about this:  if Cookie hatches these eggs, we need to upgrade our fencing.  Or we can eat these six white eggs and find some other kind of eggs for Cookie to sit on.  I'll let you know what we decide...

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