Lacey's Back

Good news! As Melanie says, Lacey is back to being a chicken. Of course, she was a chicken before.

If you remember from an earlier entry, Lacey had a broody spell. We first noticed her behavior change in mid-December. During such a time, her hormones were racing and she was "in a family way" which of course is a part of Nature's plan. She wanted to have baby chicks, but winter was definitely not a good time. You can just imagine that her 3 Human friends were saying "No, No, No," and yet feeling pretty helpless about matters going on.

We kept removing eggs she had laid and she did quit laying. She had "brood patches" on her breast where the feathers dropped out, creating greatest heat for eggs. These brood patches were "highly vascularized", which means the skin thickens, is red, and has lots of blood vessels underneath.

She was cranky. Most of the time, she was fluffed up like a porcupine. In fact, she looked like she was in a snit most of the time. She stayed in the nest box all the time, except when we removed her, took her outside, encouraged her to eat and drink. We'd bring her out and in no time, she'd be back in the hen house on her way to her nest box.

Truthfully, we were a bit worried about her because she got really skinny. Would she come out of it? We didn't know.

One day last week, she was done sitting on the nest. She is now out with the other chickens. She is a bit skinny, and she is smaller than many of the other hennies. We are curious to see how and if she regains that weight. She is lively and quick.

As you may remember, Lacey laid the first egg on Butterfly Hill Farm. She is a very sweet little henny and we are so glad to have her back.

Welcome back, Lacey!