For the past three weeks overall egg production has dropped our coup and the dreaded broodiness has set in. Our once inquisitive, loving Pekin Bantum has been transformed into an agoraphobic, angry recluse.

No matter how fast we remove eggs, as soon as they’re replaced, Bruno is back at her post, guarding her spoils.

Experienced poultry keepers have suggested a variety of tricks and witchcraft to snap her out of her spell but to date her motherly instincts have overpowered our efforts.

A dunk in a bucket of water just left her a little damp, a night in the garden may have made her shiver but did nothing to deter her and a run around the garden simply heightened her aggravation.

Any attempt to lower her body temperature has been met with blunt refusal. So, where do we go from here?

I’m tempted to wait it out but I miss my daft ball of fun that is Bruno!

Want to hear the chicken’s point of view? Visit my Chicken Talk Blog.

You can also follow my chickens on Twitter.

Recently, I heard that the Pekin Bantams Forum has finished. The owner of the site has done a fantastic job at running this poultry forum for (I think) 9 or 10 years. The site was a gold mine of information and it is sad that Pekin Bantams Forum is no more.

As a result of this, I have brought the ‘launch’ of the new poultrykeeper.com forum forward – since there are no doubt many people looking for a new forum to go to and now seems like a good time to kick things off.

I am hoping that some of these people together with our existing users may be able to help shape this new forum.  I have tried to create a forum that (like the main poultrykeeper.com site) is clean to look at, fast to use and without much advertising.

There will be no Google Adsense, only a very small amount of ads from poultry and equipment suppliers that I would be happy using myself. Just like poultrykeeper.com, this is a hobby, not a business so the intention is to eventually cover costs and raise some money for our charity of the year, not to make a profit.

Anyway, I better get on. I’m writing an article on poultry saddles as it’s getting to the time of year where my hens are looking a little worn!