Prepare for Hatching Day!

This story has been written over the course of 3 weeks, so will change considerably by the end!

1)

We better get that new hen cathedral built as we are ‘expecting’ 12 new arrivals anytime now!

From the beginning of August, Bliss, one of our hens got broody (which means she thinks she is hatching eggs) and now that we only had 4 chickens left, we decided we wanted to increase our flock by putting fertilised eggs under our ‘Broody Bliss’.

So, we put the eggs under her on 8^th August and it takes exactly 21 days apparently, so they should hatch on the 29^th August and we are super excited!

2)

Sadly though, we are already down to 8 eggs as after a few days she chucked out one egg, which I put back, only to find the same egg out of the nest the next day again, this time with a hole in it! Almost as if she was making a point:”Oy! You silly human! This egg ain’t right and I don’t want it!”

Maybe the egg wasn’t fertilised or not viable any longer and broody Bliss knew (what do I know, eh?).

The other eggs were also discarded or were laying bashed in the nest, so maybe chickens aren’t as stupid as we think they are or maybe she is just very clumsy.

3)

It is now 25^th August and she has managed to destroy even more eggs and we are very disappointed, especially since we could see that some of the eggs had developed. We don’t know why she is doing this; it may be that she is inexperienced and plonks her backside down, puncturing the eggs in the process. Or maybe she just doesn’t have a clue.

I’ve read various stories on various chicken forums and there isn’t one answer really. Someone started her post with ‘chickens are jerks!’ (not my words, but it did cross my mind too) and someone else compared them with ‘pancakes’, so we are not alone in our frustration (and grief).

4)

We are now down to 5 eggs and only 3 more days to go. After consulting with a friendly crofter from up north, we have decided to let nature take its course and just hope for the best.

This newsletter is sent on ‘preparing for hatching day’, which is day 18 and is when the chick turns inside the egg to make hatching easier. From day 19 they could start peeping inside the egg, which is also very exciting, but sadly you will have to wait until the next newsletter, in which I hopefully can you show you some very cute pictures!

You know the saying: ”Don’t count your chickens before they hatch”.

One of our apple trees had some kind of disease over the past few years and didn’t produce any apples. We tried to remedy it with melted candle wax to fight off fungal attacks and this year it looks like this has paid off as we have around 4 apples in that tree! And it looks a little bit healthier too. I know, 4 apples aren’t that many and I agree, but when you never had any apples than 4 is a 400% increase!

I think it’s fair to say that everyone was relieved it started raining mid-August after the incredibly dry spell we had before. Like last month Glendevon had been very dry and all our water butts were empty. And then the heavens opened and we had thunder for over 4 hours, which is not as bad as August 2020, when we had a thunderstorm which lasted for 10 hours and washed away part of the A823! All the water butts have filled up again, so we are prepared for the next dry spell. Below is a link to my website with more green gardening tips, including how to save water in the garden.