My hat's off to this old girl. She is the picture of determination and perseverance. She's a hen that wants the eggs beneath her to hatch. When a hen is mature and the days are long, a hen's pituitary gland will release a hormone called prolactin. She will then sit on eggs. The motherly instinct is at full throttle. When you try to remove the eggs from beneath her, she will fluff up her feathers, making herself look larger than she actually is and make a frightening noise. She'll even peck at your hand with her beak.
To tell you how bad she wants the eggs beneath her to hatch? Well, I am not exaggerating when I tell you it must be 110 degrees in the henhouse and there she sits all day long. Chicken eggs hatch in 21 days. Her hen instincts are guiding her. She is looking forward to the day when the eggs beneath her hatch and babies arrive.
Why do I keep saying "eggs beneath her?" They are not her eggs. They aren't even chicken eggs. They are guinea fowl eggs. My neighbor gave me a number of fertilized Lavender Guinea eggs to put under the broody hen. She accepted them and has been sitting on them for what I figure is 3 weeks. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the date when I put them underneath her.
Who knows? The eggs underneath her may be poached eggs in all this heat. I'll give her another week setting on them. If they hatch, however, it'll be neat to see this hen being a surrogate mother to her adopted guinea fowl chicks. We will check in on her again in the days to come.
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