One of the Annies did some weird stuff. Help solve mystery!
With all the urban homestead trademark non-sense going on I am a little late giving you a look around the garden. Or perhaps I put the garden in hiding. An edible garden during February in Seattle is anything but lush. Ours is a general mess right now due to 1) my inability to put away tools (or any various gardening implements if I’m telling the truth) and 2) the chickens who are intent on slinging dirt and straw all over the paths (when they aren’t digging large holes).
I am the one that can’t seem to convince myself to keep them more contained so I suppose the mess is my fault. In my defense, when the sun comes out in Seattle, we all need to get out. And that includes my little feathered friends.
Despite the winter mess, we are starting to see some promise.
The raspberries are coming back to life
One of the plum trees is budding
A bit of sorrel starting to come back! Mmm, sorrel. I love, love sorrel.
Indian Plum tree
Red Flowering Currant (I think. I can't remember. My brain is in a fog and the Babylady removes labels.
Daylilies back for a repeat performance.
We have a lot of crocus in bloom. Tulips, daffodils and iris are coming up as well as a host of other bulbs I planted and can’t remember what. There is a scrap of paper….somewhere.
The blueberries are back! We have 4 this year and I've been working on propagating 4 more. We'll see if they take! The Babylady= "Blueberries for Sal." Without the bears.
Here starts the mystery. This is Annie. Or one of the Annies. We can't tell them apart.
By the way, all our chickens are named after John Denver songs. And so will our new ones. We can’t help ourselves. We are getting 8 more chickens. Again, we can’t help ourselves.
In she goes. Ignore the poop. I've since cleaned the coop. Instead look at the cute fluffy chicken butt!
Checking out her nest box.
And she is in. Now things start getting bizarre.
Enter the other Annie. In this picture Annie #1 is mid-egg lay.
I saw the egg drop. Still shiny! This is the first Annie in the left nest box. I left the egg there.
So, Annie #1 laid her egg in the left nest box. I left it there to wait for the other Annie to finish up.
A while later I went back to check on Annie #2. She was still in her box (the middle box) but the egg in the left nest box was gone. And now under Annie #2. Who had yet to lay her egg. I took Annie #1 egg away from Annie #2.
Later still I went again and Annie #2 had left an egg. So, the Annies each laid an egg. In different nest boxes. And yet they both ended up under Annie #2.
This means Annie #2 moved the egg to her box. Over a divider that is about 4″ tall. Without breaking the egg.
Seriously? Is this possible? Do they do this? Why? Chicken people. Explain!
Hmmm, I’m not sure how they did it, but maybe they are like penguins? Penguins can move eggs by balancing them on their feet. If your chicken is broody (which isn’t likely from a Buff Orpington, but is possible with a young chicken) maybe Annie #2 moved it to her nest box to sit on it while she laid her egg. I’m not really sure, just speculating. We have a Silkie who is VERY broody and she’s always looking for an egg it sit on.
Bizarre huh? She isn’t broody. I don’t know if she just wanted/needed the egg their to help her lay her own egg or what. As soon as she was done she jumped off and let everyone in a 3 block radius know of her newly-laid-egg-pride. It took her hours though…so maybe there is something to her needing that egg to help. Funny little creatures.
hmm…I don’t know – our chickens all lay in one box even though we’ve given them 2 and they don’t seem to be interested in the other one at all. All 5 of our chickens are now laying and they just put them in a big pile in the middle of the one box…
Are you really getting more chickens? What varieties? we’ve ordered 3 fancy chickens now that we have our layers and we are ordering 2 ducks to eat the pests out of the garden in the summer
I really want ducks. When you get them and you like your chicken/duck set up, I’d love to see it. I haven’t been able to wrap my head around how to do it. I want the slugs gone!
We are getting more- all different kinds. I am seriously the crazy chicken lady. I love them. We had 4 polish fancy chickens but 3 were roos so they had to go. We have one polish now and I love her. she is my favorite personality wise. =)
New life! Yay for spring and new chicks! I’m getting two more this spring too.
are you getting big hens or baby chicks? i can’t wait for our little peepers to arrive. cute pics!
we are getting baby chicks. We won’t pick them up from a friends mom until they are a week or so old. How many are you getting? What kind?
Maybe we can “sponsor a chicken” in your yard. We can’t have chickens in our yard (well, legally we can, but with our dogs, we can’t… Murph would EAT anything that remotely resembled a chicken and would scale fences to do so…)… so, until we have more space and can define dog/non dog areas… no chickens here. But you could name one after a Neil Diamond song (Sweet Caroline, dun dun dun…) and we could love her from a distance…
I would LOVE to have chickens! Oh well, not a possibility now but maybe later. I am so happy to hear I am not the only one unable to put my toys away.
Hi, I see this post is old but Rock Solid – Natural Stone Planters said “If your chicken is broody (which isn’t likely from a Buff Orpington, but is possible with a young chicken)”. That is a crazy and very wrong thing to say, buff orps are known for going broody all the time. I should know, I have them!
She wasn’t broody then, but 1 of our buff orpingtons is broody now. Going on 4 weeks or so…. agh.