Four eggs, no brooding

Hooray, I think little Bob is cured of her fledgling brooding habit!

After the incident last Saturday, she was fine on Sunday...but the four ladies only laid two eggs among them, so I'm assuming the lack of brooding was because Bob was not one of the day's layers. Then Monday, she was back to brooding. I caught her trying to hatch her egg and Miss Buttons egg (Marmalade and Coco had laid their eggs in the other nest box). So I pushed her butt forward enough to grab the eggs from under her. Then, because I felt bad, I petted her for a minute while she softly clucked at me.

Then came Tuesday. One egg. I was convinced that little Bob was staging a mutiny: "OK, ladies, no more laying until she brings my babies back!"

Wednesday and Thursday...two eggs each day. What the heck? Very strange for this time of year.

Then came Friday. Four eggs...and no brooding! Ditto for Saturday! Although they put off all of their laying until the afternoon, maybe because they were distracted by Jeff finishing the path next to the coop (Lady Marmalade had been in the nest box a long time, and when I went out there, I found four eggs...clearly the other ladies had already hurried in there to do their business, and we hadn't noticed. Of course, I carried the eggs inside, said "Well, I know why Marmalade was in there so long...she was all backed up!" and showed him the eggs. I think he really believed me for several seconds...).

Speaking of the path...it's all done, except we need to get some more little groundcover starts to plant between the stones.

Things are coming along in the garden. The peas I planted two weeks ago are coming up strong, and the lettuce and spinach is slowly germinating and pushing through. If we get some decent breaks in the weather today, we plan to plant some beets, carrots, onions and more greens.