Some readers tell me they like my chicken stories and even find them helpful. The rest of you will just have to bear with me as I give the next installment of news from the coop. After six weeks of faithfully sitting on a dozen guinea fowl eggs, Citronella still had no chicks to show for her work. Apparently the eggs were duds, and we had to discard them. She and I went through post-partum depression together and have now recovered. She seems happy to be back to the old routines of scratching in the dirt.
We had a tragedy last week when a stray dog ate one of the little chicks. The remaining four are growing quickly. Their yellow fluff is quickly turning to brown and black feathers. All of them can find their way back into the pen on their own now and can fly up to the roost. They still like to hide under Petronella's sheltering wings at times.
Our young (and huge) white hen (dubbed The White Hen) finally began laying eggs. Ten days later her God-given instincts told her it was time to nest, and she settled in next to Citronella and began sitting--on nothing! We had gathered her eggs daily so she had no eggs in the nest. Nevertheless, she refused to leave or even let any other hen sit there. Today one of the Zambians put bricks in the nest to keep her off of it. The White Hen just hopped over into the next nest (Citronella's old one) and settled in again. I admire her tenacity but question her judgment. Reminds me of some people I know who hang on to ideas and habits when sound judgment and clear thinking would say, "Let it go." I hope I'll remember The White Hen when I'm tempted to dig in on issues and situations that aren't really there--or at least those that are not worthy of my nesting on them.
No comments:
Post a Comment