Yesterday, here on Kitpu Estates (also known as The Ranch), we completed our brand-new broody house. For those chicken aficionados among you, you know that a broody house is where you stick the unfortunate hen who has decided that she must give up all the pleasures of her short life and sit on eggs. She’ll sit on those eggs day and night, leaving them only to drink, eat and poop, no matter if said eggs are fertilized or not. Eventually she’ll either hatch the eggs, or one day she’ll shake herself out of her hormone-enhanced stupor and just wander away. Some chickens are amazing brooders, while others, well, not so much. Kitpu Estates’ hens are typically in the ‘not so much’ category.
We decided to finally build a broody house because we also have guinea fowl. Now guineas are about as dumb as a bag of fertilizer, but one hen can keep an acre of land almost completely free of ticks. Usually the flock will wander around grazing all day, but when they spot something unusual they freak the hell out. Then, in terror, they run toward it. Something unusual can be anything – a stick, a dandelion, a flapping leaf, a garbage bag, someone trying to feed them, other guineas, dogs, large moles, etc.
Guineas begin laying eggs in earnest in early spring. Once there are enough eggs (anywhere from four to forty-four or more), they go broody. Guineas are great brooders. However, they absolutely suck as mothers. When the chicks hatch, the mother takes up her wandering ways and acts like the tiny parade of exhausted, cheeping fluffies behind her do not exist. The babies can either keep up or they can’t. On the keep-up side, the kids win the prize of having the warm protection from Mom when she beds down for the night, only to go through the entire ordeal again the next day. On the can’t side, they die. Most of the tiny flock almost always die. If I don’t want that to happen I must find the nest, estimate how long a guinea hen has been missing, then keep track of the days. Their eggs usually hatch 28 days after Mom starts sitting. Once I spot the herd, I scoop as many chicks as I can catch, put them under a heat lamp and hand-raise them. I’m very tired of raising chicks. I’d much rather it was done au natural, hopefully by something covered in feathers.
So this year we decided to build a broody house, so when mom guinea hatches her clutch she’s already in confined quarters and can’t abandon her beloved children until they have a fighting chance. But it didn’t turn out that way. Neither resident of Kitpu Estates could have guessed that Cordelia Brown (a real live chicken) would pick this exact moment to go broody. I’m actually not sorry this happened. In response to this unexpected miracle, I picked six random guinea eggs and as many chicken eggs as possible and moved Cordelia Brown and the eggs into the newly-built brooding house. There’s no way of knowing if any of the eggs are fertilized (even though we have both male guineas and roosters for exactly this very thing).
In my experience, chickens are a million times better mothers than guineas. Once, around five years ago, Gloria Black was able to hatch thirty-two chicks. We sold all but four, of which she did a bang-up job raising. Three are still thriving today. Last year we adopted three weird chickens: Scooby, Scooby Two and Doo. Doo turned out to be the only lady. Early this spring she went broody, then sat and sat and sat and sat for many more days than required to hatch either chicken eggs (21 days) or guinea eggs (28 days). Finally, admitting defeat, I had a heart-to-heart with Doo and convinced her that sitting any longer would be fruitless. After candling each egg, unsurprisingly, every single one was unfertilized. There was no joy in Mudsville.
Now, once more, we’ve been granted the boon of a broody hen by the agrarian gods, so the denizens of Kitpu Estates have their fingers and toes crossed.
-
- Scooby, Scooby Two and Doo
-
- Guinea eggs
-
- Cordelia Brown
-
- The broody house
Photo Credits
Photos by Gab Halasz – all rights reserved
Please Share Your Thoughts - Leave A Comment!