Flock Diary - November 1999

When I went to let the chickens and geese out on the morning of 1st November, little Roadkill was in the garden, waiting to greet me. She had stayed out all night, but was none the worse for her ordeal. I intended to make sure she slept safely in the henhouse that evening....but little Roadkill disappeared again, once more staying out all night, and returning in the morning!

So, on 2nd November I stayed in the garden watching Roadkill so that I could track where she was off to every day and night. After scratching around for a bit, off she went. First she flew over the fence of the enclosure, then flew up onto the garden shed. From there, she flew onto the roof of next door's garage, and off again into their garden, through the fence and into the next garden along, where I lost sight of her. I carefully looked amongst the undergrowth, and eventually found the runaway Roadkill. She had made a nest for herself deep in amongst a large pile of dead branches, leaves and grass.

Above: the site of Roadkill's nest

On the well camouflaged nest sat Roadkill, snuggled deep in the pile as still as a rock, trying to make herself look as invisible as she possibly could (below)

And underneath Roadkill were sixteen little white eggs ! Everything fell into place - Roadkill was broody. For the past few weeks, Roadkill had been sneaking off to build her nest and fill it with eggs, probably laying one every other day. When she thought she'd got enough eggs to make a satisfactory family, she started the incubation process, which usually takes about 21 days.

Obviously, Roadkill couldn't stay there for 21 days to incubate her eggs, because :-

a) it would be too dangerous for her to do this, with stray dogs, feral cats and foxes prowling around at night,

b) the neighbour probably wouldn't be too pleased with having a broody hen in their garden

c) the eggs aren't fertile because we haven't got a rooster to fertilise them. Roadkill would just be waiting for rotten eggs to hatch if she continued the incubation !

d) broodiness is caused by a hormonal change and is stressful for hens, and doubly stressful if the eggs aren't fertile, as the hen will attempt to incubate them until they hatch. While incubating, broodies only leave the nest once per day to eat, drink and defecate - broodies save up all their droppings from throughout the day into one huge, smelly dropping which the hen deposits away from the nest to keep the eggs clean and detract attention from the nest.

Above: Roadkill's clutch of sixteen (16) eggs in the nest.

So, much to Roadkill's annoyance, I took the eggs out from underneth her one by one, and placed them in a plastic box with some shredded paper. As I removed each egg, Roadie puffed up her feathers, 'growled' at me in a way that only a chicken can, and raised her hackes. I took the box of eggs indoors, and Roadkill followed me. I put the box on the floor in the living room, and Roadkill settled herself back onto her eggs, seemingly unperturbed by the movement of her 'egg-children'. The eggs felt extremely warm when they had been underneath Roadkill, so I placed a sturdy thermometer underneath Roadkill with the eggs. Later I read the thermometer, which told me that the incubation temperature was about 28 degrees celsius.

I needed to stop the little hen's broodiness so she didn't try to incubate for too long. Over the next few days I removed Roadkill's eggs six at a time, and prevented her from sitting on the eggs as much as possible. But this was easier said than done! Every time I put my hand near the nest, Roadkill would fluff herself up and 'growl' at me. When I gently slid my hand underneath her, got hold of an egg and began to draw it out, Roadkill squawked, puffed herself up even bigger, and viciously pecked my hand until I dropped the egg, which fell back into the nest intact. Roadkill then gave me an angry stare, then lovingly rolled her precious rescued egg back underneath her body. Roadkill did this every time I tried to take an egg from her, so in the end I had to remove the broody hen from the nest to avoid being pecked to ribbons!

Little Roadkill soon stopped her broodiness once all her eggs had been taken away, and was allowed back into the garden again. For the first few days out, she was kept confined to the Ark to ensure that she wouldn't go straight back to her old nest and start another clutch.

Roadkill has a very good strong protective mothering instinct. This is because she was naturally hatched under a broody hen herself, rather than in an artificial incubator conditions, as is the common way in poultry-keeping. A naturally hatched (non-incubator hatched) bird has been taught to eat, drink, preen properly etc by it's mother hen. Of course, an artificially hatched bird can do all of these things, but it is just following it's instincts rather than having the added advantage of a mother to teach, warn it about predators and reassure it. The unhatched chick communicates with its' mother through the eggshell, and the mother and chick are able to recognise each other before the chick is even hatched. The mother hen teaches the chick what is good to eat, and naturally hatched birds will relish eating slugs, flying insects, ants and other garden pests more than the artificially hatched bird, who will tend to stick to familiar, recognisable foods which have been offered to it on a plate since chickhood. The naturally-hatched bird is self-sufficient, and would have a much higher chance of survival in the wild than an artificially hatched bird. The naturally hatched chick appears to remember what time of year it itself hatched, and will tend to go broody at that time, hence Roadkill being broody in late autumn, which is when she hatched in 1998.

On 6th November the flock were again weighed, and their moulting progress and mite/louse status checked.

An outbreak of mites and lice had occurred, and was quickly treated with Pyrethrum based cage bird louse and mite spray. Some of the parasites had laid eggs amongst the hens' feathers, whch the spray couldn't eradicate. The flock must be treated again when the eggs have hatched to enmsure full eradication of the louse/mite population.

For most of this year I have been selling eggs to a local Community Cafe, who had expressed an interest in the chickens who lay the eggs they recieve. After seeing photographs of the hens, and hearing their stories, the staff at the Cafe wanted to meet some real hens. So, on 12th November Duracell and Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma went on an outing. I chose these two because they are normally pretty well-behaved birds; plus Brahma is a Champion Show winner, and Duracell expertly illustrates the maltreatment of Battery Hens with her mis-shapen twisted beak and droopy eyelid. The Cafe staff were thrilled to see the hens, and interested in Duracell's story of rescue and the Brahma's fame. After their short visit, I brought the hens into the office with me for a drink and a walk about, while I did some work. They were extremely well-behaved, and after a short exploration of the shelving unit by Duracell, both birds settled down under the table next to their water bowl and preened themselves.

On 23rd November I checked and treated the flock again, to check on the efficacy of the spray treatment a few weeks previously, giving more spray if nescessary, and to check the weight and general health of the flock, as a cold had broken out amongst them. The affected hens all had running nares (nostrils) and swollen faces, and were sneezing frequently. The nostrils of some hens in the later stages of the cold were clogged up with thick, viscous yellowish 'snot', in a similar way to humans affected with colds. Some of the more badly infected birds just sat hunched quietly , standing on one leg, out of everyone else's way and not wanting to be disturbed.

To Flock Diary 2001 - January, February and March 2001 / April and May 2001

To Flock Diary 2000 - January 2000 / February, March, April 2000 / May 2000 / June 2000 / Stroud Show 1st July 2000 / July 2000 / August 2000 / Painswick Show 13th August 2000 / September 2000 / October, November & December 2000

To Flock Diary 1999 - January 1999 / February 1999 / March , April 1999 / May , June 1999 / Stroud Show 1999 / July 1999 / August 1999 / September 1999 / October 1999 / November 1999 / December 1999

To Flock Diary 1997 & 1998 - August to December 1997 / January, February and March 1998 / April 1998 / May 1998 / June 1998 / July 1998 / August 1998 / September 1998 / October 1998 - Part One / October 1998 - Part Two / November 1998 - Part One / November 1998 - Part Two / December 1998