It's very handy having a broody hen, she will sit on and try to hatch anything spherical. She'd even sit on golf balls, apples, anything vaguely round in shape! This little hen sat on nine fat Aylesbury duck eggs for us, laid by our own duck, and she hatched eight of them. She proudly escorted her flock of ducklings around the field, not once questioning why they had flat bills and webbed feet! After a few days we put a paddling pool out for them and the ducklings were thrilled however the broody hen was most alarmed by her babies insistence on swimming and diving!
The drake, however, was not at all impressed by the arrival of ducklings, even though they were his own offspring. He managed to kill one and new fencing had to be erected pronto to provide a safe area for the ducklings to forage.
We've got our first broody hen, and I can't get her off the cluck!
Posted by: Moon over Martinborough | December 14, 2009 at 05:15 PM