I’m goat and chicken sitting!

Last week, I had the pleasure of chicken sitting!

Yup. I know basically nothing about chickens, but my good neighbor was confident in my abilities – and she had given thorough instructions plus a mission focused walk-through.

I was ready.

One week. 7 adult chickens (1 very ‘broody’). 3 goats (1 very pushy). 6 juvenile chickens – not yet laying eggs. And, one ‘show’ chicken who lived in a glamorous cage in the house.

I got this.

MY PHOTO JOURNAL.

I had some trepidation because I’ve never had to ‘move a broody chicken’ to get the clutch of farm fresh eggs. Evidently, and I have no idea how this happens, but one broody chicken was sitting on the daily dose of 7 eggs. How did all the chickens lay all of their eggs under this one chicken – daily?

I just didn’t get it. But, that was how it was. All 7 daily eggs ended up underneath this one broody chicken.

I built up my courage and moved her to scoop up the eggs. But, I didn’t like doing it, and she didn’t like me doing it either because she gave me the evil chicken stinkeye when I did. So, to avoid the chicken human altercation, I stole her precious eggs every other day… The other interesting fact of this task was I could not believe how wide she would spread her body to cover 14 eggs! She looked like a flounder chicken. I was impressed and amazed.

Sadly, I couldn’t hold open the door to the egg laying area (with my head), and also hold my camera. So, I don’t have a photo of Ms. Broody. But, she was remarkable. I wanted to take her home and reward her for her efforts. Maybe put her to work around here.

This is the dominant goat. She pushed everyone off of her feed.

Several of the resident hens who were not broody… helping eat breakfast.

Pretty girls.

This goat is lowest on the totem pole. The odd thing is that she is the largest… but she doesn’t know it.

This is middle goat. More friendly to the powerful goat, but not mean to the lowest goat.

Here are the 6 teenage chickens who are not yet laying eggs.

This is the inside show chicken. She was much smaller and she layed tiny eggs – which she hid from me. Her eggs were the exact same color as the shavings, and she would bury them. This started after I took her highly visible first 2 eggs. Enough of that! She hid them from that point onward. Oh, and she was a total chow hound. She loved her food!

Here she is, eyeing me. She wanted my attention but she didn’t want me to touch her.

Here she is, puffing herself up to impress me. And indeed, I was impressed!

We are getting there for Pegasus!! Only $300 needed to reach our goal for our August Bucket Fund horse, Pegasus, who lost his tail while trying to survive on the streets. You can read his story here.

All donations are 100% tax deductible. THANK YOU in advance! Every little bit adds up! This poor guy needs so much TLC.

CLICK HERE to donate! Thank you so much!!