Miss Broody's had a Relapse

Actually, two relapses. 

Last week, just when I thought our broody hen was on track again, she was back to her old tricks. For a couple of days in a row, I'd found Miss Broody sitting in the nest box again. In my May 13 post, I explained about broody hens--they're either trying to hatch eggs, or their hormones have tricked them into thinking they are hatching eggs when they're just sitting on a nest. 

Ruffled feathers!

Actually, a broody hen doesn't really sit, she settles her whole self into the bedding, fluffs out her feathers, and sinks her head into her chest. Her eyes are half closed, and she'll generally act like she's in a stupor. But if you disturb her, she'll squawk or even hiss at you! 

Plus: as far as I can tell broody hens stop laying. 

Anyway, some days ago, finding Miss Broody on the nest, I lifted her out and set her out in the yard with the other 4 hens. She seemed to settle into her normal chicken behavior, scratching the ground and wiggling into the dirt for a dust bath--an especially good sign was that she ate heartily. She joined the other hens on the roost that night too, so I was hopeful she was "cured."

She wasn't. For the last 5 or 6 days, her broody behavior has really settled in. We've closed the nest boxes after laying time, but then she'll sit on the floor of the coop. We've moved her out of the coop into the caged pen, the yard, and into the orchard, but every chance she gets she runs into the coop. So we've closed off the coop in the daytime. Denied a nesting spot, once she's emerged from her broody stupor she'll join the other hens.

But she absolutely will not sleep on the roost. At bedtime, several nights in a row, John and I have lifted her up onto the roost. The night before last, he tried it 5 times. Last night, I tried twice. But she has immediately jumped down and settled back on the floor.

I've found some "chicken whisperers" online, with lots of advice for "breaking" (yep, that's the terminology) a brooder, which includes what we've already tried. One remedy we haven't attempted is a cold-water bath (apparently a broody hen's body temperature runs high, and bringing it down can help). Also, putting her in what one chicken expert calls "chicken jail": isolating the hen in a dog kennel without any bedding. 

Sigh. I hope it won't come to either of those. We've only had a few eggs from the whole flock all week, so I suspect a brooder's pheromones might be impacting the other hens' egg production. Which is a much larger problem than 1 hen not laying.

It's been quite a lesson for me, discovering a hen's implacable instinct, and that I, the puny human, has very little influence on it! I'll let you know how Miss Broody gets along...and if you have some advice, I hope you'll share!

Needless to say, with all the weeds in the garden needing attention, babysitting Miss High-Maintenance Broody is impacting my precious gardening time!  

Spring Crops: You Win a Few, You Lose a Few

Seed stalks on spinach 

Spring gardening is so weather-dependent I try not to expect too much. 

So I'm trying not to be too disappointed that my spring spinach has gone to seed already. Last year, we were eating spinach salads well into June. But this spring…sigh. After a two-week very warm spell in April and only a minimal harvest, every last plant in the bed has bolted--which also means the leaves have stopped growing.

The slugs have gotten to many of my newly sown seedlings too. We’re in the middle of an unseasonable cool spell—it felt a bit wintry yesterday evening, at 42 degrees—so maybe the remaining seedlings won’t bolt too soon.

John, ever the optimist, just transplanted 4 zucchini starts into a bed. We generally don't plant zucchini until June, and they're sure to shiver with the current chill. But after the slugs ate all our seedlings last summer, at least these 4 zuchs have a head start!

On the winning side, our asparagus is up and running…no, it's sprinting! For John and me, every dinner is a feast these days—we pile our plates high with sautéed or roasted spears, with enough to share with my sister and our wonderful neighbors. Which makes up for our paltry spinach!

Strawberries are thriving

Last year’s strawberries were kind of a bust. A very small harvest, possibly due to some kind of fungus. Luckily, I planted new strawberry crowns in all new beds, and these plants are super-vigorous and now setting fruit. So if this cool weather doesn’t last long, we should be seeing our first ripe berries in 3 weeks or so...that is, if the mice and voles don't eat them first.

It’s harvest time for rhubarb—which happily, produces in cool weather, hot spells, and everything in between. For breakfast, I’m enjoying rhubarb stewed with last summer’s marionberries and a spoonful of honey. I just picked an armful of rosy, red spears, and envision a strawberry- rhubarb crisp in the not too distant future. 

Rhubarb is so easy to grow and very resilient, and organic rhubarb is about $4 or $5/lb. in the store. So if you are a fan and have a few square feet of extra space in your yard, why not plant a crown?

Free ebook!

You’ll find tips for growing these crops and many more in my free gardening guide, Little Farm in the Garden… Available at your favorite online retailer or at susancolleenbrowne.com! 

Broody, Bullied and…Back?

With our third little flock of hens, John and I had hit the jackpot. Or so we thought.

Sweet and easygoing hens

For months, our five Buff Orpingtons, an especially gentle breed of laying hens, were model chickens. They’d settled into their new home without a glitch, started laying right away, and were cooperative and copacetic—a far cry from our previous flock, with the three savage black Sexlink hens that nearly killed our poor Buffy. (At the time, our lone Buff Orpington.)

Anyway, we thought we had it made. Until one of the hens went broody.

Which, as I understand it, means that a hen’s mama instinct kicks in, and I’ve heard Buff Orpingtons are especially prone to broodiness. A hen will sit on the nest in a sort of somnolent state, from sunrise to sunset—although if you try to get her off the nest, she’ll hiss at you. The problem is, she stops laying eggs, and often won’t get off the nest to eat or drink.

This particular hen seemed to be less vigorous than the others, and had developed slower (her comb was sort of shrunken, and pink instead of a pale red). When she wouldn’t get off the nest, I bodily lifted her off, and placed her in the yard with the other four. After a few days, she seemed to get the idea and rejoined the flock.

Then last month it happened again—despite all of our Orpingtons looking exactly alike, I’m almost positive it was the same girl. She’d been in the middle of a heavy molt while the other girls had molted in late winter. From my research, I gather than when a hen is out of sync with the flock, it can lead to problems.

Our Alpha girl, who seems to set the agenda of the flock (and strangely enough is the smallest hen!) began chasing this hen away from the feeder. And often hassling her out in the yard. Not pecking her or anything, but this more passive hen seemed to be intimidated enough to hide out in the coop most of the day.

So there was poor Miss Broody, spending her days in a nest box again.

I knew she’d likely stopped laying because I’d often discover her on an empty nest, and our egg production was 2-3 eggs per day inside of 4 or 5.

So I went back to the drill. Gently lifting her off the nest (despite her objections), setting her out in the yard with the others, and giving her a little feed on the ground. Then closing the nest guard to keep her out.

For about two weeks, she’d go right back into the coop and either settle onto the floor, or stand next to the nests, squawking plaintively. Then a few days ago, when it was nearly dark, I discovered that she had settled onto the floor for the night—apparently too intimidated to claim her spot on the roost. I guessed she’d been sleeping on the floor for some time.

My conclusion: the other hens had decided she was an outsider.

I carefully lifted her to the roost. She seemed unsure and shaky, and after I stepped out I heard a thump and peeked back in. She’d jumped back down to the floor.

So, same drill: I set her back on the roost, and amazingly, there she stayed. The next night, finding her on the floor again, I once again set her on the roost. Hesitantly, she scooted closer to the other four girls.

The next day, she was spending a few hours outside with the other four. That night, when I found her on the floor and got her onto the roost, she not only scooted a little closer, but actually nestled against the huddled-up foursome.

The day after that, she was bellying up to the feeder and eating away; today, she burst out of the pen with the other girls to peck at the scratch John always tosses out every morning.

We’ll be watching her carefully, to make sure she doesn’t resume her bad habits—that she has fully rejoined the flock. But for now, Miss Broody is back!

Gardening Books on Sale!

My second gardening book 

Little Farm Homegrown, my homesteading memoir, has been selected for a special promotion--it's now 40% off at Kobo! 

Here's more: A gardening book for anyone who’s dreamed of going back to the land and living a simpler life… In this sequel to the award-winning memoir, Little Farm in the Foothills, Little Farm Homegrown follows the continuing adventures of Boomer homesteaders Susan and her husband John pursuing self-reliance in the foothills of the Pacific Northwest. Like the first Little Farm memoir, this book is a warmhearted story of optimism in the face of the many challenges the couple encountered, shared with a sense of humor and a deep appreciation for the natural world.

The promo code is SALE40.

And if you like feel-good fiction with a gardening theme, my novel The Galway Girls is also 40% off at Kobo... 

A story of love and gardening!

In this heart-warming tale of women’s friendship and discovering love where you least expect it, The Galway Girls follows Irish thirtysomethings Kerry and Fiona as they search for their heart’s desire among the misty green hills of the Irish countryside. Kerry's food and hen-raising adventures in the little village of Ballydara have some fun tie-ins with my own Little Farm experiences! 

The promo code is also SALE40, and both books are on sale through April 19.

Right now, it's a busy time at our place...sowing seeds, weeding the springtime invaders, and one of my favorite tasks, pruning blueberries. You'll find lots of tips for raising blueberries and many other crops in my free gardening guide, Little Farm in the Garden--available at Kobo, Amazon and all online retailers!

 

Birding at Berryridge

 It's been a fun month of bird-watching at our little farm in the Foothills! 

Early in March, the hens were in what we call their "back 40" yard--a fenced-in area we carved out of the woods for more scratching places. Suddenly, one hen stopped scratching, stretched up her neck, and started buck-buck-bucking like crazy. 

The other 4 hens quickly joined in, heads up, all of them cackling raucously, and John, standing just outside this fenced area, silently beckoned me over. He pointed to an alder tree near the fence line. There sat a barred owl, quietly watching the hens, then us from about 10 feet up--it's coal-black eyes intense.

Interestingly, while the hens were on high alert, our presence didn't seem spook the owl. John and I stepped a little closer, and the owl lazily took off, settling again in a nearby tree. We did it a second time, and once again, the owl flew away, but only a few trees over.

We left the owl to its own devices, and ushered the bucking hens into their pen, where they quieted down. The owl  hasn't returned, at least as far as we know. But a week later...

A hawk in our woods

It was mid-morning, but John and I hadn't yet let the girls out of their caged pen. Impatient to be in their fenced-in yard, the hens were all clustered on the big-leaf maple stump they liked to hang out on. Just then, a red-tailed hawk glided right over their pen--and in a flash, all 5 girls were instantly across the pen and into the coop. 

Yet how all 5 hens got through their little door simultaneously remains a mystery!

A week ago, a bald eagle settled onto the very top of a massive Douglas fir tree at the edge of our property. It's a favorite spot for the raptors in our neighborhood, but this time, the bird sat up their for over an hour! I could swear he was looking toward the hens, busily scratching in one of our orchards, but never made a move. At about 150 yards away, he was apparently too far from the hens for them to take notice. Still, whew! Felt like a close call.   

Getting a bird's-eye view

The last few years, game birds have been showing up around our little woodland lane. This past week, a grouse (ruffed grouse, I think) has visited our place, just outside our garden fence, several times! I'm hoping the spot becomes a regular feeding area.

Grouse are visiting!

And a few days ago, I saw our first hummingbird of the season! We've transplanted April-blooming wild currant all around our house--it's a favorite food source for hummingbirds--and this one was checking out the buds, which were not yet open. (He flew away before we could get a pic--but here's one from summer, a couple of years ago.)

Hummingbird in the bee balm

Happily, the currant bushes will soon be in bloom, and if past Aprils are any indication, it will be a veritable hummingbird party in our yard! 

What interesting birds have you seen lately?

Two Irish Novels now 40% Off!

Set in Ballydara

 My latest novels, The Galway Girls and Becoming Emma, are currently 40% off at Kobo! Selected for one of Kobo's special promotions, these two feel-good Irish novels will be on sale until March 29--here's more about The Galway Girls:

In this warmhearted tale of women’s friendship and discovering love where you least expect it, The Galway Girls follows Irish thirtysomethings Kerry and Fiona as they search for their heart’s desire among the misty green hills of the Irish countryside.

And Becoming Emma:  What happens when an unlikely friendship turns to something more?

An office attraction

Dublin girl Emma Carey has just embarked on another fresh start—the job of her dreams at Ireland Place, an Irish arts center in a picturesque Victorian mansion near Seattle. At thirty-one, sweet, plucky Emma is finally poised for career success…if she can only avoid her fatal flaw—the one that’s ruined every other job: falling for her boss. 

With humor and tenderness, Becoming Emma continues Emma’s journey toward her own happily-ever-after. This heartfelt, charming page-turner is connected to the Village of Ballydara series, set in a cozy Irish village in the West of Ireland!

At Kobo, both books are in the Fiction category, and all you need is the promotion code, MAR40...Find all about my Irish novels and country memoirs at www.susancolleenbrowne.com! 

St. Paddy's Day is Coming!

 Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? If you do, I have a couple of fun ways to help!

Here I am in Cong, Ireland

For Irish film lovers, I have an eclectic list of my favorite Irish movies to share! 

Well, maybe it's not that eclectic--mostly feel-good movies like "The Secret of Roan Inish" and "The Quiet Man"--but I mention a few mystery-thrillers and thoughtful family dramas too. You find the list on my website!

Also on my site: an Irish Glossary of Irish expressions and idioms, a free mini-ebook!

To help me celebrate, I'm enjoying some wonderful memories of our visit to Ireland a few years back. Cong, in County Mayo, is the picturesque village where "The Quiet Man" was filmed--behind me is a statue of  the stars John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. 

And here's John and me on St. Patrick's Mountain, also in County Mayo!  

Here on this blog, you'll find Irish recipes and stories...and lots more Irish stuff at www.susancolleenbrowne.com!