Notes from the coop

We keep a tally each day of how many eggs we get and then add it up at the end of the week. Just something fun to do. Last week was a record egg-laying week for our chickens - 20 eggs! One more and it would have been a perfect week.

It won't be this week, though, because Lily has gone broody, which means she thinks she has to lay on eggs to hatch them. She sits and sits in the egg box and gets feisty if we try to shoo her out or take the eggs. The other day when I was out playing with the boys she was sitting in there and Iris kept going in the coop and squawking loudly. I am pretty sure she wanted to sit in the nest and lay her egg and was telling Lily to get out! Well, we don't want Lily's broodiness to hinder the other chickens' egg-laying so today we tried putting them out in the pen in the yard. That way Lily couldn't sit on the nest and the chickens could just lay their eggs out there. The boys and I were outside playing this morning and I was watching what was going on in the pen. Lily chose a spot to be her 'nest' in the corner and sat and sat there. She got up once and Iris swooped in and sat there looking like she may want to lay an egg. Lily wouldn't leave her alone! She was practically sitting on top of Iris! Of course this bothered Iris and no egg was laid. After I put Isaac down for his nap, I went out to see if any eggs were laid. Nope. So I put Iris and Rosie back in the coop and left Lily out in the pen in the yard. Iris went right in the egg nest, so I'll bet she is laying an egg as I write this. Hopefully we can 'break up' (that's the term used in the chicken world) Lily's broodiness so life in the coop can go on as usual.

Lily being broody

Rosie

Iris