Feeling Broody?

One of our hens, Ginny, has been broody for some time. Every year she becomes insanely broody and will sit on the eggs of the other hens in the hopes of hatching out a baby. Following her animal instincts she waits in the hopes of a chick hatching beneath her. The past two years we've given her fertilised eggs or baby chicks to keep her happy and add to our brood. Similarly one of her previous hatchlings, Adele (we name all of our hens, bar Ginny, after female singers), is broody so she and her mother are sharing egg duty.

Today we brought home some fertilised eggs and three baby chicks. The fertilised eggs go beneath a broody hen and 21 days later we should hopefully have a few new chicks running about. Usually we keep the broody mother hen and the new babies in a separate run so that they can bond and not get picked on by larger hens. Once they're bigger and older we introduce them to the other hens. Everything is done in a safe,
careful manner.

The only problem is today, when we placed the eggs into the little pen with the three baby chicks and introduced them to Ginny and Adele they both weren't interested. They totally rejected the little chicks. We waited for some time, hoping they'd settle, but they did not. The eggs are now being kept warm via chicken butt, but we worried for the chicks. Normally Ginny would keep the little ones warm under her wings, but she wasn't even approaching the chicks or showing interest.

I made the quick decision to take the chicks in. Cold winds were rising, rain was beginning to fall and their surrogate mother wasn't responding as well as she usually does. It was imperative to keep them warm and provide nutrients and fluids. I went inside, carrying two of the chicks in a small animal carrier, but with the littlest chick clutched to my chest for warmth because it looked like it was shivering a little. Once arriving in the kitchen Mum and my sister Bear followed suit. When Dad arrived in the kitchen he found Bear, Mum and myself all with a baby chick wrapped up and clutched to our chests to keep them warm. Suddenly we were no better than broody hens. We will keep an eye on the chicks and try to re-introduce them to Ginny again in the morning. If not I will personally hand rear and care for them myself.

Since these chicks are born from, and should later lay, blue eggs we gave them names along the 'blue' theme. Bear was nursing a chick now named Eva (after Eva Cassidy who has songs like Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain). I immediately thought of Joni Mitchell who has an album called 'Blue' but then chose Lana after Lana Del Rey who covered 'Blue Velvet' by Elvis. Mum then decided to go with Beyonce since her daughter is called Blue Ivy.

So yes. This is how I have spent my Saturday... acting as a human incubator for a scrawny baby chick tucked up in my hoodie. It seems to have brought strange maternal instincts out of all of us. Imagine three women, relaxing on the sofa on a Saturday evening, nuzzling baby chicks against them. Sad, strange and adorable...

Also here are our rescued hens settling in. Here they are experiencing grass for the first time.
They are very pale and unhealthy looking. They almost appear to have wrinkles under their eyes. In a few weeks they shall look much better. It has been a good rehoming day for chicken-kind.