No chirpy cheep-cheeps for us

We recently bought some fertile eggs for Blue, our Maran whose favourite pastime, it seems, is being broody. She hatched some lovely chicks last year, and was determined to starve herself recently until we relented and got her some more eggs. Only one problem – she abandoned them after five days, whilst we were on holiday. Our lovely chicken sitting neighbour replaced Blue with a broody hen of her own, and we hoped for the best.


Around Day 18 we found a broken egg which Mama Hen had pushed out of the nest. The chick had formed but there were no signs of life. We continued to let her sit on the remaining eggs but Day 21 emerged and passed without any muffled cheeping sounds from under Mother’s plumage. Devastated. Although probably not as devastated as the poor broody who has been dutifully sitting for all this time.


And to rub salt into the wound, after a couple of weeks Blue became broody again! Bad hen!

Blue on her eggs