The Stepmama hen had just lost her sister. We don't know what caused the death, but the surviving hen was so sad. The sister who died had been a broody girl, but we had no rooster, so she would sit on unfertilized eggs. Suddenly, after she died, her sister turned broody all of a sudden-- probably because she was brooding over her sister's death, so it was natural for her to become broody in the other way, too. At least sitting on the eggs from the other farm took her mind off her sister's death. Six of the ten hatched. She pecked at only two emerging newly hatched chicks-- the roo we are trying to determine the breed of here, and his brother-- both males. She didn't peck the girls. I think the boys' high energy testosterone levels must have unnerved her after sitting for 21 days on nice, well behaved eggs. HAHA.
She was 18 months old when she played StepMama hatching the eggs. When I tried to catch the chicks one day so they wouldn't escape into the cats' clutches, I scooped them up in a box. My hen got very mad at me and pecked me hard for several weeks afterwards, thinking I had tried to steal her babies. She didn't realize I was trying to save their lives. She's been very protective of them (except she still hates my little rooster in the pictures above), and she will drop her treats so they can have them. I couldn't have asked for a better mother hen. I know her sister in Heaven is very proud of her. I'm just sad that Sis never got to hatch chicks of her own-- I see now why she wanted to do so so badly-- they are a blast. But we didn't need more chickens.
But when Sis died I knew the surviving hen needed flockmates for the cold winter ahead, and that's why we brought these eggs in. I think it did help her get her mind off her beloved dead sister, focusing on the little ones, so that's good.