Poor dear, she's feeling hormonal

Being city children, neither inventor recognised that Nancy

had gone broody. 

According to Jackie French, this overwhelming maternal urge is largely bred out of modern hens.  She's fluffed all her feathers out, gone a bit grumpy, and has a weird deep cluck.

As we have no roosters, letting her sit on any of our chooks' eggs was going to be an exercise in frustration.  Luckily lovely friends D and P (who gave us Nancy in the first place, along with Alice and Marion) have roosters and fertile eggs and sympathy.

She's sitting on six fertile eggs, so, if all goes well, we'll have six little chicks in a couple of weeks.

As soon as Nancy gave in to her hormones, the other hens pretty much stopped laying - just the odd one and usually on top of Nancy, who then sat on it, along with her others.

We sacrificed a couple of infertile eggs and put them in other nesting boxes.  Chooks, being fairly simple creatures, will only lay where others have laid.  Apparently they're quite taken in by wooden or plastic eggs too. 

The other girls seem to be laying again, although we do have to check under Nancy every day.

And here are the stupid pigeons who get into the hen house then can't work out how to get out.