An "Shared" Story from Another Chicken Lover
A friend sent me an e-mail which contained this adorable chickens story. So, I decided to share it on my blog, as it goes along with my love of broody hens and chicks.
Here's a copy of the story "Love at First Peep: Baby Chick Hatching":
Here's a copy of the story "Love at First Peep: Baby Chick Hatching":
For a fun learning experience, my girls Abigail and Rebekah hatched chicks in a borrowed incubator. Five times a day they turned the eggs and monitored the humidity and temperature.
After 21 days we heard peeping coming from inside the incubator and were thrilled. Fourteen bantam eggs hatched. We had black chicks, brown chicks and yellow chicks. And then there was Fancy Nancy, whose golden fuzz was striped with dark chestnut. She was the most beautiful chick we had ever seen.
Because we live in a neighborhood that does not permit fowl, we had to give away our precious hatchlings. We picked four special chicks—Fancy Nancy, Peepers, Sunshine and Super Hero—to go to a family from church who wanted to add to their small flock of laying hens.
The chicks thrived at their farm. Every time we visited, my girls would run to see them. But it soon became obvious that Fancy Nancy was the only hen out of the four.
Not only did the roosters provide no eggs, they insisted on crowing every morning. After a few months of short nights, the family decided the roosters needed a new home. Though we were sad to see them go, we were thankful at least Nancy was a hen.
Shortly after the roosters’ departure, we offered to care for the family’s animals while they visited relatives. The girls were given clear instructions and warned that Nancy would sometimes go missing for days.
The first day we arrived, the girls got to work putting out fresh water, feed and hay. Nancy was nowhere to be found. The girls combed the barn and the yard to no avail. They were disappointed, but it was getting dark, so we prepared to leave.
Just then there was a faint sound, the same one we had heard when our chicks hatched. We stood there trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. And there in the corner of the hay stall we saw Nancy!
It wasn’t long before chicks started peeking out from underneath her. Now we knew why Fancy Nancy went missing. She was caring for her eggs in her special hiding spot.
There was no food or water in her stall, forcing her to fly over a short wall to the chicken feeder. So we drove to the feed store for the necessary items to sustain our mother hen and her chicks. For the next hour Abigail and Rebekah sat in the stall holding and watching the chicks, in awe that Nancy was now a mom.
We were thrilled to find Fancy Nancy, but it was even more thrilling to know that the gift we gave had multiplied. Now our friends will have more laying hens, and probably some more roosters, too!
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