Bonnie, our crazy bantam Seabright chicken, has been broody for over 3 months. Maybe it was my pregnancy that got her in the mood, but she has been hoarding and sitting on eggs daily for a while! Steve and I read all about "breaking a broody" on sites - we kicked her out the nesting boxes daily for at least a month, and it didn't work. We dunked her in a little water from the waterer, and it didn't work. She was such a brat she would leave the nest once a day to go destroy all the food out the feeders by stomping and kicking it all out in a tantrum. Then she would go out of the coop and lay the biggest, smelliest, broody chicken poop right on our path. She would squawk and yell and protest daily that she couldn't sit on eggs. And also of course, she's not laying her dainty little bantam eggs.
Well, Steve and I finally succumbed to letting her try to become a mom. We moved her into her own broody pen and let her sit on 3 green Araucana eggs. Alii, our only rooster is an Araucana, so they should be full bred Araucana babies. So, at the end of May she started her Zen-like meditation of sitting and staring and barely moving a muscle, except her eyelid. I guess once a day she would get up to relieve herself and take a few bites. Steve and I sort of forgot about her. Well, I made sure about once a week she still had food and water and she was like a statue in there, still not moving. I briefly read about candling the eggs to make sure they were fertile, but 1) I didn't have time and 2) nature will just take its course, right?
Anyway, on the calender we had a ?eggs on June 20th, since their incubation is supposed to be 21 days. I thought she started sitting on May 30th. Today, I went out back to check on Bonnie, since it had been about a week since I laid eyes on her. To my surprise, just standing and wobbly, even slightly wet, were 2 baby golden yellow chicks! Bonnie, in her neurotic, dorky way, immediately panicked and stomped and tried to keep me away, but she did step on one of them. Luckily, resilience applies to all babies I imagine and the little guy just got right back up and scurried under her. Later in the day, she has figured out how to step around them and corral them next to her. They are so cute! More pictures to come when Bonnie gets more used to me being around her babies, but she has really turned out so far to be a stellar mom!
