Two more Broodies are on their Sit Down Protest

Once the days get longer you can bet your boots that one or two hens are getting more and more reluctant to get out of the nest box and let the others in. Although we have 8 nest boxes which is more than enough for our 20ish hens, the girls always try to lay where the broody sits. I reckon they are a bit like go-to-work mothers leaving their children with a childminder. They only lay where they know they are going to get the best care. We now have two more broodies settling in when they suddenly lose the ability to stand up. If you pick them up they stay in a sitting position. You put them down and they stay sat down. I moved Bronwen out of the nest and also Persephone. Persephone had been turfed out of the nest box or perhaps she had decided to let one of the other girls in to lay an egg so she could hijack it later because she was sat in the middle of the coop floor all fluffed up. I emptied the eggs from the nest boxes and found 10 eggs under persephone while she was sat on the floor. She was a bit miffed to be hoiked up and had me rummaging underneath her to extract her stolen egg stash. She then moved into the empty nest box and shuffled herself down. I put one egg just out of her reach on the floor to see what she would do. She looked immediately interested in that little package like I had just dropped a tenner. She had a quick look around to see that nobody else was about to pounce and she stretched her neck to the egg and skillfully shuffled it along the floor towards her and up the nest box lip and into her nest box. She then shuffled herself down again and looked quite smug. Another egg successfully snaffled.