One of our Araucana hens , "Smoke" had gone broody several weeks ago and was sitting on 8 eggs, that we gradually switched with ceramic eggs. We were looking to get six chicks in the spring and decided to take advantage of Smoke broodiness. After a doing a lot of research we decided to wait until Smoke had been sitting on eggs for two weeks, before we got the chicks. We moved her to a large pet carrier and removed her from the large coop and her 17 flock mates to a large refrigerator box in our garage. The next day we got our 6 week old pullets from a local farm supply store. That night after she was a sleep we moved the chicks into the box with Smoke. We then listened intently. After several suspenseful moments we heard the chicks trilling and smoke making happy hen sounds. It has been nearly a week now and Smoke is a very protective mother. We couldn't be happier with how things turned out.
