Lost :

3.21.12

One teeny little Banty hen named Widget ! I noticed she was missing Monday. Usually she's right here, wanting some breakfast or to sneak the cat's food. One of the working students said she'd seen her that evening, but I didn't. She wasn't around for dinner either, yesterday. I walked ALL over the farm, calling for her. She knows her name and comes a'runnin' when she hears me calling her, but nothing but silence yesterday. There was one place I Hadn't looked though- in the hay. Yesterday afternoon, while a student was grooming in preparation to ride, I got my little pen light and went searching.  Well, I found her. There she was, wedged between a block wall and a big hay bale.....  Just sitting there.

" hmmmmmmmmmm" I thought to myself as I tried to pick her up. I figured she'd just decided it was a nice place for a nap. Certainly there was no way she'd gone "broody" ( wanting to hatch out eggs and have babies). She was way to young for that ! Once again Mother Nature proved me oh so wrong. Widget had been one busy little hen. When I tried to pick her up, she fluffed herself to twice her normal size, and did a 'growl' of warning. Apparently she thought I was a predator come to snack on tasty banty sized eggs....

That little bitty hen had 14 eggs behind that hay bale !!!!!  She had SO many she couldn't sit on them all to keep them warm .  Obviously that was why she'd stopped laying in her little hen house- they were all there ! I had to squeeze in between 800 pound bales to bend over and gather them all up.

She's "missing" again this morning, since I let her out of her little nest...... Wonder where she'll decide to lay her non-fertile eggs now !?