Broody Hens in the Henhouse

Each afternoon around 5 pm, I grab the rustic wire egg basket that hangs from a rafter of our barn and I enter the henhouse.  The henhouse is where the birds roost for the night on roosting bars that line the eastern wall, but it is also where the hens lay their eggs.  We have nesting boxes that line the north and south walls of the henhouse - four boxes on the north wall and four on the south wall, along with a milk crate full of hay that they lay in.  It serves as an overflow nest when the other boxes are full.  Sometimes two hens crowd themselves in one box to lay farm fresh eggs for us.

The boxes on the south wall are closest to the woods and thus, attract rat snakes.  Big, long, scary, but harmless snakes that eat our eggs.  It is not uncommon to get ready to pick up eggs and find a six foot long snake coiled up in the box.  It is for that reason that I keep ceramic, wooden or chalk eggs in each box as a 'decoy' for the snakes to eat and get a fatal case of constipation.  I mark them with a black stripe written across them with a Sharpie so that we don't gather them up with the edible eggs.

I wanted to draw your attention to the black hen and the white hen.  They are all fluffed up as they make themselves look larger than they are.  They are quite aggressive and also make threatening noises when you try to move them to get the eggs out from underneath them.  They'll peck at your hands.  The thing is, the birds don't move - at all 24/7.  That's when you know they are broody.  

Broody hens have a strong, hormonal urge to set on their clutch of eggs and hatch out chicks.  She has nothing else on her mind except hatching out a clutch and mothering her young.  She lays no more eggs.  She stays on her nest.  She rarely even gets up to get food or water.  God put that instinct into our fine feathered friends.

In like manner, He also gives that to humankind.  It is the normal maternal instinct, biological clock, or whatever you wish to call it for us.  Tragically, we as a modern society have largely rejected this and walked away from this gift.  As a people, our birthrates have fallen dangerously close to not meeting replacement numbers.  Why?  Materialism.  Children are expensive.  Our time is more valuable.  If we don't have kids, we can afford the vacation or the camp on the lake or the $80,000 Suburban.  The real question is: if we don't have kids, what are we missing?  Can parenting break your heart?  Most certainly, but oh, the joy you can receive!  Can we learn something from the broody hen?  I think so.

"Leave me alone," says the black hen.

"Don't bother me.  I have a mission to fulfill," says the white hen.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!’”  Matthew 23:37-39

Jesus was speaking to Israel who had rejected her Messiah.  He likens His love to the deep, nurturing, compassionate care of a mother hen.  It's funny how you read verses like this and then walk into the henhouse and experience a teachable moment in looking at the broody hens that point you to our Savior and His great love.