Broody hens and our First Strawberries

After having Dolly our Buff Barnevelder go broody and spending a day in a box I found another hen in our compost and cuttings pile.  She was one very angry hen!  It was kind of scary to see our quietest most laid-back chicken go crazy.  Squawking and screaming at me with most of her breast feathers plucked out.

When I went to visit her for the second time, without my dog, she was much quieter.  She even left her nest to see if I had food.  I manged to get hold of her and put her in the box that Dolly had just vacated.  Once she had laid an egg in there, out of the comfort of her nest, she forgot about being broody.  It's not something I relish doing, but hens are not free to keep and we have hens for eggs.  If they start sitting they stop laying.  I don't mind having one sitting at a time (to get some meat birds started for us), but three sitting at once, no way!

 

We also found our first strawberries this week.  I have have 6 suckers from my sister in law growing on the front steps.  They weren't super sweet but very tasty, I'm sure they'll get better as the weather gets warmer.  Maybe I'll get enough to make a little pot of jam.