Since June, several times a day as I gather the eggs from the nest boxes, I throw off this hen. She would find some eggs and pretend they were hers and want to hatch them, only other hens were still laying in the boxes, so I had to remove the eggs or end up with a fiasco of 40 some eggs, some broken, maybe maggots and nothing hatched. It is not good for the hen to sit in the box for months too, because it promotes the perfect environment for mites and lice. So far, she appears to be clean, thank goodness.
But today an unfortunate incident occurred. A young chick of maybe a few weeks belonging to a different hen got trapped in the duck's water bowl and was there for a long time. The chick was cold and was falling asleep when I found her. I tried to give it to the mother, but she was not interested in waiting for the baby because she has 8 others to tend to. For a moment I was at a loss as to how best to warm and protect this little one. Then I had an idea.
I gave the wet, cold and tired baby to this hen. I lifed her and tucked the baby under her wing. She began her clucking instantly and I breathed a sigh of relief. The Mother Clucker finally had her baby. She was puffed up and proud and chattered softly to her little foster chick. At last she was happy.
Later when I checked on the pair, the baby was dry and was sneaking in and out of its new mother's warm feathers, quite content and the hen was still clucking away to her baby. Goodness knows she sat there long enough to warrant a foster chick. Finally, she has her little one and all ends well. What a happy story from The Fat Ewe Farm .
But today an unfortunate incident occurred. A young chick of maybe a few weeks belonging to a different hen got trapped in the duck's water bowl and was there for a long time. The chick was cold and was falling asleep when I found her. I tried to give it to the mother, but she was not interested in waiting for the baby because she has 8 others to tend to. For a moment I was at a loss as to how best to warm and protect this little one. Then I had an idea.
I gave the wet, cold and tired baby to this hen. I lifed her and tucked the baby under her wing. She began her clucking instantly and I breathed a sigh of relief. The Mother Clucker finally had her baby. She was puffed up and proud and chattered softly to her little foster chick. At last she was happy.
Later when I checked on the pair, the baby was dry and was sneaking in and out of its new mother's warm feathers, quite content and the hen was still clucking away to her baby. Goodness knows she sat there long enough to warrant a foster chick. Finally, she has her little one and all ends well. What a happy story from The Fat Ewe Farm .
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