the continuing adventures of the brooding hens

So, I asked her...”Did you ever stop the other hens from laying their eggs in the nest?”

“Yes.” she told me.  “We finally picked her up and marked all the eggs.”

“How many were there?”, I asked.

“20”, she said.

“All three hens still sitting in the nest?”, I asked.

“Yep, all three.”

I never thought I would think chickens were interesting.  I never understood the fascination with chicken and rooster decor.  OK, I still don’t understand that.  So, maybe I don’t think they are interesting so much as entertaining.  Of course, I don’t have to take care of them.  Or the ducks.  I imagine the humor would wear off if you had to keep solving social problems.  Or not.  My sister still seems to have a sense of humor about them.  

“Have any of the eggs hatched yet?”  I asked several weeks later.

“No”, she said.

Some of them should have hatched by now, but the number of eggs being sat on keeps changing.  So my sister and b-i-l finally separated the three brooding hens on the eggs that were there at the time from the rest of the hens.  They thought maybe they were getting snakes in the coop eating some of the eggs (all Ethyl’s eggs have disappeared as well) and then the other hens would lay fresh ones in the nest, hence the changing number of eggs.  That and, she discovered, that the brooding hens that were not getting up to eat were helping themselves to egg dinners.   

ICK!

So now, the three brooding hens are in the side of the duck yard with Fred and Ethyl, the two new ducks.  They finally had to divide the duck yard in two and Ping and the duck hen live in the other half.  All the eggs are marked and the calendar is marked as well.  When the appropriate day on the calendar is reached there better be baby chicks or all those eggs are going in the trash.

You can read (with pictures) the two previous posts in this thread...chickens are sneaky and a chicken by any other name...