Off To Rejoin The Flock

     It was just a year ago that Ms. Araucana was a new mom to two fluffy little chicks.  She was a good mom from what we could see.  She clucked and fussed over her little ones, scooping them under her wings and holding them close to her ample bosom at the least sign of trouble.  They thrived and, by the time they were six or eight weeks old, they happily joined their aunties in the flock.
     Last month, one of those little chicks – now grown into an almost-clone of her mother – went broody.  She refused to get off her nest and somehow convinced several other hens to lay their eggs there, too.  We traded out those infertile eggs for some from a neighbor’s flock that includes a rooster and moved Ms. Broody and her new, fertile eggs to a separate pen where she could brood in peace.
      It was where she, herself, had been hatched and had spent her fluff-ball weeks, so you’d think that she’d be happy there.  But she was having none of it.  She paced and squawked for quite awhile before settling down to her job and, even then, she escaped at the first opportunity.  As a matter of fact, during the three week incubation period, she escaped twice more and was off her nest more than we thought was appropriate for a wannabe chicken mom.  But, we figured she knew best.  After all, doesn’t instinct take care of those things?
     The chicks should have shown up by Saturday so yesterday Nyel went to take a look.  Ms. Broody was off the nest (again!) and Nyel found that, instead of the original eleven fertile eggs, there were now eighteen!  Ms. Broody was no longer broody at all – if ever she had been!  She was back to laying eggs.
     Nyel checked all the eggs and found that several had begun to develop but she had obviously aborted her chicken-mom responsibilities some time previously.  So, she is back with the flock and none of them seem to be treating her any differently than they ever did.  Among chickens there is apparently no stigma in a false broodiness.  Nor did I see her own mother giving her any advice for next time.  There is no Parenting 101 for hens; it’s instinct or nothing.  Only Farmer Nyel and I were disappointed.