Since its a freezing wasteland up here where I live, and since I'm not allowed to have chickens in the house, I have no broody hens at the moment. But if my dad lets me, I hope to get some my hens broody this spring when they start laying again. And this time, hopefully I'll hatch pullets!
I got my first chickens on April 10, 2009, so it's been just under two years. Last spring, I experienced a broody hen for the first time-- my RIR hen, Simone. Simone was quite determined and attacked the hoe when I was cleaning the coop near the nesting box. Finally, after a couple days of research on hen behavior, I figured out that she was broody. I was given permission to allow Simone to hatch some chicks, so I labeled three of her eggs (it was easy to tell whose eggs they were. Simone is my only chicken that lays speckled, medium-brown eggs) with an "S" for Simone. Then, I eagerly awaited the hatch. Sadly, over the next week, each egg cracked. So I let Simone have a fourth egg to replace them. I hoped the chick inside would be a pullet. I wanted to name her Princess. It seemed like a nice name. But I never found out the chick's gender. The day before it was supposed to hatch, a rat stole it.
Feeling pretty discouraged, I let Simone have three new eggs. I was feeling pretty bad, so I forgot to keep track of how long the eggs were in that box with Simone. Then one day (On Monday, June 28, 2010, in case you're curious), I went outside to give the chickens their breakfast. I gave them their feed, scattering it around on the hard-packed earth. As usual, Simone came out with everyone else to eat. I took this chance to check the eggs and one of them had a hole in it. I was sad. I was sure that it was broken. I picked up the egg and it wiggled and peeped. I had never experienced a hatch before, so I was so excited that I was dizzy.
I moved Simone and her eggs into an old rabbit cage in an outdoor storage room connected to our house. Simone kept pacing around in her cage, angry at being "cooped up". So I prepared a cozy shoebox for her and put the eggs in it, then put it in the cage. Simone sat down, satisfied. It took hours, but I stayed with Simone and her baby the whole time. Finally, at 2:18 PM, I picked the egg up and set it down by the box to get one more picture. As I was trying to work out the camera's setting, the chick gave a final nudge and fell out of the egg. It was SO cute. Simone peeked out of the box to look at her baby. Then she gave it a look that seemed to say, "What is that thing? Do you really expect it to be related to me?" I sat there, staring at the chick. It wiggled its head, then tried to stand. It plopped over on its side. So I gently picked it up and gave it to Simone. She suddenly seemed proud.
Sadly, the other two eggs never hatched. After my chicky hatched, Simone kept kicking the other eggs out and they chilled.
To this day, I still own this chick. It took seven weeks and seven eggs and all I got was a cranky cockerel. He was named Pip when he was two days old. And I wouldn't trade my Pippy in for any other cranky cockerel in the whole wide world. He's got a babyish side and loves to be fussed over and mothered by humans. Last November, Simone finally decided that Pip should be on his own, so Pip turned to me for comfort.
Anyways, just had to share this story! It has something to do with broody hens... sorta.
I hope that I can report on Simone's next set of chicks if she decides to become broody again.
