And underneath… a dozen eggs!

     Our youngest girl is making a bid for motherhood and we are feeling all proud and protective.  Never mind that the eggs she has been carefully sitting on haven’t had benefit of a rooster’s touch.  There hasn’t been a male member of our flock for more than a year for which we are very thankful.  Despite Larry Holland’s insistence that a flock is only well regulated if it has the benefit of a rooster, we are happier without one.  And so are our girls.
     So, when our year-old araucana went broody on us the other day, we needed to kick into Mode Devious.  We knew just what to do.  We called our friends Gordy and Susan whose flock of 25 is, in fact, managed by one busy rooster, and we arranged to buy a dozen fertile eggs – at least we hope they are fertile.  Yesterday we slipped them under Ms. Broody, but first we removed the three non-fertile eggs that she was planning to hatch.
     Now that’s a curious thing.  Day before yesterday there were two eggs under her, both of which we removed.  The next day, three eggs – all brown ones.  Since she lays blue eggs, we aren’t sure who all are in cahoots with her.  The other hens usually lay their eggs in the nest boxes ‘upstairs’ in the coop.
     But for several days the nest boxes have been empty; Ms. Broody has somehow corralled all the eggs in a nest she has fashioned on the floor of the coop.  We’re pretty sure she isn’t carrying those eggs down and placing them where she wants them.  So how does she communicate to the other hens that she wants them to lay their eggs in her nest?  Somehow, she’s very clever, this wannabe mom!
     Nyel is readying a special pen for Ms. Broody and will move her and her eggs there in a day or two.  She will still be in close proximity to the rest of the flock, but will be afforded some privacy.  In three weeks or so, when the blessed hatching occurs, she’ll have her chicks all to herself for awhile – at least until they are old enough to deal with the attention of six interested aunties.
     Thirteen months ago, almost to the day, Ms. Broody was an egg, herself.  She, too, came from Gordie and Susan’s and was placed beneath one of our virgin hens who had decided to raise a family.  On that occasion, we placed just four eggs under the Mom Hen and only two hatched.  At a similar rate, six of the current dozen should hatch… But we aren’t counting our chicks yet.