Early this spring Eliza's chicken, Mara, went broody for the second time. A broody hen sits on her nest up to 23 hours a day trying to hatch the eggs. Without a rooster, our eggs obviously will never hatch. But Eliza wanted Mara to be a Mama so badly! She told me, "Mom, imagine if you wanted kids and thought you would have them, but never did." Way to tug at my heartstrings EE!
After some research, we learned that broody hens will often accept very young chicks as her own. So after much begging by Eliza, we agreed to get two chicks and hopefully trick Mara in to raising them as her own.
The kids loved them the first afternoon and quickly named them.
Mina is a New Hampshire Red
That night once it was dark, Michael and I slipped the eggs out from under Mara, tucked the chicks underneath in their place, then hoped she didn't let them freeze. We checked on them a few times and didn't hear any distressed peeping, so we figured they were warm and happy.
The next morning we found a very proud Mara doing a perfect job taking care of her babies!
It has been so much fun to watch Mara raise her babies! She kept them warm, fed, and close to her. She even puffed herself up and charged at Haley when she got too close for her comfort. Mara also introduced them to the flock, and we've had very little problem with the older chickens pecking the chicks. Mara is a great Mommy!
Of course the kids still took as many chances as they could to play with the babies...
Now we have a flock of 9 chickens! Good thing we eat a ton of eggs. In the future, I'll happily let a broody hen raise chicks. You get all the fun of babies without the extra work. Thanks Mara for being a great Mama!
