Brooding

Brood-

n.

1. The young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds or fowl hatched at one time and cared for by the same mother. See Synonyms at flock¹.

2. The children in one family.

v. brood·ed, brood·ing, broods

v.tr.

1. To sit on or hatch (eggs).

2. To protect (young) by or as if by covering with the wings.

v.intr.

1. To sit on or hatch eggs.

2. To hover envelopingly; loom.

3.

a. To be deep in thought; meditate.

b. To focus the attention on a subject persistently and moodily; worry: brooded over the insult for several days.

c. To be depressed.

Things have been a bit broody around here.  It all started one day when one of The Native's was asked to collect the eggs.

"I can't, there's a chicken sitting on the eggs"!

I told The Native not to worry, the hen must be laying, leave her alone.

Next day.  Same thing.  Every time I went out to get the eggs or one of The Native's there was a hen sitting on the eggs.  It was enough hit or miss that I didn't realize it was the same hen until I started to try to collect the eggs myself.  It was Dorkus.  Of course.......

I opened the gypsy wagon to check for eggs and got the most withering look from her.  I went to check under her and the feathers plumped up and her eye got all big and ugly and rather than get my hand pecked I closed the door.  I totally get the brooding thing.

I looked up brooding hens on the Internet.  I don't want a brooding hen.  There's no rooster.  I have no intention of ever having a brooding hen.  What am I to do about it.  What I read is that I needed to 'break her up'.  There were two suggestions.  One was to isolate Dorkus in a cage with a wire bottom so she couldn't sit and get comfortable.  This would make it so her underside would get a bit chilly and her temperature would come down.  Like this:

The other suggestion was to dunk the hen.  Like this:



Another thing I learned about broody hens is that this usually happens in the spring and can be expected.  Every once in awhile, you'll get a hen that is a bit crackers in the head and try to go broody in the middle of the winter.  Dorkus.

They say that a horses behavior mirrors their owners behavior.  I really hope this isn't the case because if you look at the definition of broody 3c .......

Well, let's just say, if you happen to drive by one day and I'm either sitting in an all wire cage or The SM is dunking my bum in a bucket of ice cold water..........  You'll know why.  I'm broody.  Don't mess with me.  My feathers are sticking straight up, my eye is all evil, and if you get close, I just may peck ya!

The End!

P.S.  Dorkus is no longer broody and is happily scratching her way around the gypsy wagon.  There's hope for me yet.