Friday Farm Fotos: A Battle of Wills

This is Doris.

Doris is one of my four laying hens.

She is a big girl with an even bigger ambition.

Doris wants to be a mommy.

She has gone broody.

Problem is, there isn't a rooster around for miles.

Well, my three Silkie roosters are nearby, but thanks to their rather small stature,

the laws of nature say it would be nearly impossible for them to... ahhh... help her out.

So, there is a battle of wills going on between me and Doris.

I want her to snap out of it because now egg production is down.

(Broody hens don't lay eggs, they just want to sit on one.)

But more importantly, in this extreme heat we've been having it's very dangerous

for a hen to spend too much time in a not-so-well-ventilated nest box. 

Especially since she's wasting her time on infertile eggs....

But Doris is having none of my reasoning.....

I've done all I know to do to get her out of the mood.

I even went so far as to lock her outside the hen house for a few hours one day,

but when I opened the door she went right back on the nest,

scolding me the whole time.

Even her sisters- Daphne, Delia, and Darcy- think she's lost her mind...

especially when I throw a nice juicy, over-ripe tomato into their lot

and even that doesn't get her attention.

Oh, she came off the nest for a minute to see what the fuss was all about,

But then.....

*Sigh*

I'm thinking an egg-tervention may be in the near future...

Stay tuned.

Happy Friday, everyone!