Are You My Mother?

Have you ever read the Dr. Seuss book Are You My Mother? That was one of my Dad’s favorite books when we would read the series together when I was a little kid.  It is a good one! The reason I mention that is because we have a broody hen right now and when she started acting like this it reminded me of that story. Broody hens are chickens that believe the eggs that are being laid are fertilized and will become baby chicks. What they do then is nest in the eggs boxes all day and all night laying on top of the eggs keeping them safe and warm. It really is sweet and endearing.
Dumpling, our broody hen, really wants to be a Mama. When we first introduced our new girls to the coop she would chase them around the run. It was not in a territorial mean way. It was as if she wanted to be their mom or friend. Take them under her wing, pun intended.
 This is my first experience dealing with a broody hen so I was not sure of what to expect. Right now what Dumpling will do is roll all of the eggs into a pile and then lay on top of them all fluffed up. She will continuously do this all day and night. Each day I have been taking her out of the egg box so at least I know she is getting food and water at some point each day.  Once she has ate a meal she heads back in to the egg box to continue her duty of protecting the eggs. This is right after she takes a dirt bath of course. She has been keeping herself extra clean lately. Rushing over to the dirt bath, scrubbing up and then heading back inside.

I also have noticed that she has pulled the feathers from her stomach out. I read online that hens will do this so they have skin to egg contact to help keep the eggs extra warm. They also have been known to use the feathers to create a comfortable nest for the eggs to rest on. It is not a painful process for the hens and once the hens molts new feathers will grow in anyway.
Her characteristics through this process have also changed. She makes a “cooing” sound every night when Cory or I go and retrieve the eggs for the day. Almost asking us to not touch them please. However, even after removal of the eggs she still remains nesting in the egg box.  Broody Hens will continue to protect the eggs even if they are not there; “ghost eggs.” You could buy fake eggs at your local tractor supply store if you want to give her something to lay on.
When she does come out of the coop she makes a loud unique squawking noise every so often and flaps her wings, pushes out her chest and fluffs up her feathers. I am not too sure what is means when she does this. I am assuming it is something to do with the broodiness but she sounds a bit dramatic which makes it comical! Haha.
I also do not know the timeline of how long this will go on for. I have read its upwards of 20 days until the eggs hatch. Which in our case, they never will. Other flocksters have suggested removing broody hens from the egg box repeatedly until they break the cycle or putting them into a separate container with a wire bottom so they are not comfortable and break the trance. I just do not have the heart to do that. Something in her brain is telling her right now that she is a mother. That is nature’s way and I am not one to ruin the natural cycle.  Egg production from that hen will go down so you could test out those methods to break the broodiness and have her start laying again but we are going to let it play out. So Dumpling, enjoy being a Mother Hen!