Lord Noel's Golden Nuggets

Whatto! Chicken Farmers.......

After quite an abundance of eggs from 'Nuggets' our lovely Bantam hen............

.....she started to behave rather oddly..........

Thanks to the internet we were able to narrow her behaviour down to two possible topics.....

.....either she was 'Egg Bound' ........

........or she was 'Broody'.

We found out that being 'Egg Bound' was the more serious of the two conditions.......

....and indeed could be potentially fatal for her!

She was displaying all the characteristics....

....sitting down alot and not moving much.....

....going orf her food.....

...producing massive stools.......

....and sitting on the nest when she didn't even have an egg under her.

They can also encourage parasites to enter their body from sitting down so much.

The cure recommended was partial submergence in hand warm water.....

....so we waited until sunset.......

....when all birds become quite soporific.....

....and ran a nice deep bath for her in the kitchen sink.

 

 I was surprised at how calm she was.......

....she actually seemed to enjoy it.

 

 But this didn't seem to cause any eggs to appear....

....and when we physically examined her underside there were no signs of eggs inside her.

So we had to go to Plan 'B'......

....she might be 'Broody'

The suggested cure for this was the exact opposite of the first cure.....

...i.e. submergence in COLD water.

But we thought she'd probably had enough fuss for one night...

....so we put her into a temporary Ark overnight.....

....and let her rest.

The next day we put some bricks on the nest to discourage her from going back there.....

...or either of the other two hens .....as they can learn from watching and suddenly become Broody too......and we didn't want three broody hens on our hands.

 

Then Nuggets was isolated for 24 hours inside the run I'd built....

....with her own Ark to sleep in that night.

The strange thing was that Nuggets had been really stroppy with Supreme and Satay....

....(again classic Broodiness symptoms).....

....but despite her aggressive behaviour towards them.....

....they both sat diligently by the run that Nuggets was stuck inside of......

....proving conclusively that they were both her 'Loyal Friends' after all.

Once the 24 hours had passed.....

...Nuggets was back to her old self.

And all three hens were getting on famously again....

.....although to date......she hasn't begun laying again.......yet.

If anyone has any suggestions....

...I am prepared to listen....

....providing you are a World Reknowned Expert with the proper Credentials.

What's YOUR favourite 'chicken husbandry' tip?

Tallyho!

Best Wishes - Lord Noel & Lady Jacqueline