A little while back, one of my hens, Lucy, went broody. Frustrating because we don't have a rooster, nor do we want one. She is setting herself up for disappointment, I thought. So, I'd take her off the nest and collect all the eggs on a daily basis. A few weeks passed and thankfully, she stopped. I had won! She seemed back to her normal self. Hanging out with the other girls, scratching for worms and bugs, and dirt bathing when out on supervised free range. All was well in the coop again....until...one week later!
I went out and there she was! Laying, laying, laying! Gosh darn it! Now what!? After a lot of thought, I decided to get fertile eggs from a good friend. I got five exactly. I marked the eggs with an 'x' and let her lay. I waited. A few of the fertile eggs were broken. And I was still gathering the eggs being laid by our other three hens. They would go in and lay right beside her, so she would just scoop them up and lay on them as well. Hence the 'x'. I would have to go out and dig around her to gather up the eggs without the 'x'. She would get mad and we argued a lot. :) I was thankful the other girls didn't stop laying.
I wasn't sure if this was going to work, I mean, why wouldn't it? But it was my first experience in doing this, so I really didn't know what to expect. After nineteen days and all but one of the fertile eggs were broken, I was starting to lose hope. My dear friend brought over four more eggs. I marked these with an 'o'. Just to keep it going. I figured, at this point, whatever happens will happen and I'll just let it be.
Around the 21st morning, I went out to gather eggs and found a new baby chick. Success! Lucy is a mama! Welcome baby Julia. Hopeful it's a girl, otherwise, it's Julian. And he will have to go.
Also, the other four fertile eggs were broken. So only one baby for now!
Today, they took their first dirt bath together. It was one of the most precious things I've ever seen. She's a good mama. A very determined mama!
In the end, we both won!
XO
