Thursday, June 28, 2012

Maybe it's the recent heat, but a few of the chickens sure have been acting weird the past couple days.  This morning I noticed  this hen acting all  motherly toward this turkey poult, shepherding it around and  protecting it from any other bird getting near.  Now I just finished cleaning the coop and the two of them were snuggled up together inside. Maybe the hen decided it wasn't worth being broody in such hot weather, and besides I kept taking all her eggs away, so she adopted a turkey. The poult seems to like the attention.
This buff orpington hen has also gone broody, hunkering down in a nesting bucket the past couple weeks.  She is SO crabby.  A couple times she has actually drawn blood, pecking my arm when I reach under her to collect any eggs.   That makes me all the more certain I don't want  her to raise any chicks to grow up to be like their mom!

2 comments:

Jocelyn said...

Bad chicken!

I had a goose who went broody earlier in the year, but I wouldn't let her set. So when another goose hatched a gosling (surprise to me), she adopted it. She's like a little surrogate mama. I guess she and your chicken got their wishes!

Susan said...

Now my hen is trying to mother half a dozen turkey poults, although the poults seem mostly oblivious to the mothering. They wander off curiously every which direction, which seems to cause the hen a lot of consternation keeping track of them. Yesterday, I noticed the hen with a turkey tucked under her wing, the turk's head towering above the hen. So amusing.