Mother knows best

Giving the broody hen in our backyard a chance at hatching some eggs turned out to be the most delightful decision of the year so far.

For about 3 weeks, she kept these eggs the perfect temperature for the little chicken embryos to grow inside the eggs. Until, for three days in a row, baby birds broke their way through the shells with their beaks.

And then, on the third day, she marched forth from the coop to take them around the yard for eating, exploration, and exercise.

She power scratches like we’ve never seen before, stopping after every one-two-one set to tidbit something on the ground. The little buddies intently follow her around, racing to be the first to get whatever speck she’s pointed out.

Then, nap time. She lifts her wings up a little, makes her body wider, and raises and lowers herself gently until all four chicks are underneath her warm body.

This 15 minutes of foraging, and 5 or 10 minutes of resting repeats all day long, until they’re so wiped out they go to bed an hour early than the other hens.

The chicks are thriving incomparably better than the ones we carefully brooded at home. And mom knows all this behavior instinctively, even though she herself was incubated and born in a hatchery, and raised for the first 5 weeks of her life in our basement.

Mother hen (and nature) knows best.