Brooding

We have a broody hen. Her desire to hatch eggs is stronger than her desire to do anything else. She goes out to eat and drink occasionally, but we have only seen her out twice in the past two weeks. She doesn't lay any eggs while she is brooding,so she is sitting on the other hens eggs, carefully tucking them underneath her and keeping them warm and safe. She gets extremely upset if we get too close to her. She is a very good little hen, diligently tending her little flock of eggs.

We do not have a rooster in the chicken coop, making her efforts fruitless. Apparently, chickens do not know the difference between fertilized eggs and those that will just rot underneath them in the summer heat. The instinct to be a mother is so strong that she will just sit for around three weeks, protecting the unfertilized eggs. Maybe she dreams of little yellow fuzz balls following her around the coop while the other hens look on jealously-- or maybe her hormones just make her want to sit and protect the eggs without really knowing the outcome. I'm sure somebody, somewhere is studying the chicken brain to understand more of how they think! But while they're trying to figure it out, my hen is sitting.

The research I have done on brooding hens-- since I don't really know anything about chickens, all my information comes from the internet!-- says that she will sit for about three weeks and then give up. But the other hens may see her sitting and decide that that's the cool thing to do and follow suit, which could cause egg production to drop significantly. Meanwhile, I will feed and water the hens that are sitting around doing nothing but being hormonal. But, the other option is to serve the hen for Sunday dinner. So, we are letting her sit.

Thinking about this hen, and worrying about rotting eggs and a coop full of sitting hens, has made me think about the instinct all species have to reproduce. Well, okay, I haven't been thinking about all species so much, mostly just my species! Human females get broody. The desire to find a reproductive partner and get busy is about the only thing that was discussed in my college apartments. And after the first one in a group of friends has a baby, eveyone else starts to want one. Just seeing a baby tends to make a girl broody!

I have sympathy for my hen, I think because I can compare myself to her. I have spent many years brooding- living with the desire to bring a new life into the world, and not being able to make it happen despite my best efforts. I understand her desire to try, to believe that a miracle could happen. I understand her hope, and her frustration when the eggs are stolen from her. Maybe I am attributing too much feeling and emotion to the hen-- okay, I know I am! But, sometimes its nice to know that someone understands.