Amy in the nest

 Amy, one of our Ameraucana hens, has gone broody. After a few days of being screeched at when I picked eggs, Mom and I decided to mark some eggs to put under her. The eggs should hatch around the 10th of July. We write the date and swirly lines on them in pencil, because writing on them in pen or marker can supposedly poison the chick by soaking through air holes the shell. She's got eight now, but the other hens keep laying in her nest, often with her in it, once when I picked eggs there were ten eggs under her.
  We tried putting Amy in one of the wire cages in an open section of the barn, because we were afraid that one of the hens would break the eggs while trying to lay in Amy's nest. But she didn't like it. She got really anxious and wondered around the cage clucking. So we moved her back in the hen house.
  Hopefully, she'll like the broody pen better once we move Mohawk and her clutch out. It's less open which I think was the problem with the cage. We put cardboard and pieces of a bag from feed around the nest in a corner of the cage to try and make it feel more private, but we didn't want to enclose it too much because then she might overheat and I guess it wasn't enough for her.
 
  

                 Thank your for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a bat-tastic day!