Broody Hen

In all the chaos of missing kittens, I forgot to mention that our broody hen, Jennie, is back in business. 

Over the years, the broodiness trait, in other words the behavior causing a hen to sit for prolonged periods of time on a clutch of eggs, has been bred out of chickens. It's fairly uncommon to encounter a broody hen, but Jennie is one of the best! In fact, she's so dedicated, that she's been known to steal the other hen's eggs. Right now, she's sitting on 13 eggs! A variety of Barred Rock, Australorpe and Aracauna eggs in shades ranging from green to brown.

From the time she started sitting, to Hatching Day is usually 21 days, give or take 48 hours. Which, by my calculations, is Monday! Sept. 2nd! So... SOON!!!!

It's difficult to tell, though. We're assuming that not all 13 eggs are fertilized. And then, there's the problem of her stealing eggs, because she was STILL stealing them about 6 days ago. That's an age difference of about 2 wks. I'm not sure how that will work!

When Jennie goes broody, she RARELY comes off that nest, so I haven't been able to see if any of the eggs are pipping (small pecks in the egg from the chick inside) or peeping! :/  She's a champ at turning them with her feet and beak and tucking ALL thirteen under her. Its GOT to be uncomfortable! 

We've been through this once before. 2 years ago, Jennie went broody and hatched 2 chicks. One died, but we still have her son, the red rooster, named Quita. (Yeah, I know. Quita means Little Girl in Spanish, but we thought HE was a SHE for a long time, and the name just stuck. Seriously, I don't think Quita minds). 

So this story is to be continued. :) We hope to have some good news to share with everyone soon.