Our first chick of our own.
When my 2 Brahmas started laying again in May, Hall's break from laying had lasted 71 days and Must's 96 days. A month later, at the start of June, they went broody again. Pruun did not brood any more, but she was not laying yet either.
In mid June I put four Araucana eggs under Must. What happened was that two hens (Must and Hall) set about brooding the four eggs together. If one of them rose from the nest even for a moment to eat or drink, the other immediately shuffled the eggs under herself. One egg eventually broke, two failed, and from one came a beautiful and very busy chick, black with a mother of pearl green sheen to its feathers.
When the chick hatched I put it with Hall on its own, and she turned into a very devoted mother. When I gave the hens a boiled egg, their favourite treat, she clucked the chick over to her and offered it beakful after beakful of the mash, just watching while the chick feasted. She pecked an apple into pieces and crumbled it onto the ground in front of the chick.
Poor Must was left without a chick and began taking her hurt and disappointment out on the other hens, fighting with everyone and no longer letting anyone else into the coop to lay. She sat on the nest herself and did not leave it for a month (she had already been brooding for 21 days). Little by little she calmed down and stopped fighting, but she still would not leave the nest. That is the third month of brooding already.
