Patiently Waiting

A few weeks ago, I went down to gather the eggs. I noticed a hen sitting in one of the nest boxes, so I took her out and got the eggs that were under her. The next day that very same chicken was on the nest again. I repeated what I did the day before, but the hen would not give up. Finally, I asked Dad if I could take her and put her in a separate pen with ten eggs to sit on and hatch.

The day we let the broody chicken sit was April 30. I put straw into the little pen and put in a water and food bowl. I took ten eggs and set them on the straw and then I put the chicken in last. She sat on the eggs right away.

When a hen sits on her eggs, she heats the eggs up to 100 to 101 degrees Fahrenheit. She turns them over using her beak. The humidity the eggs need comes from the hen’s body. Brooding chickens eat in the early morning or late evening when the dew is on the grass. This way her feathers get wet so she can keep her eggs moist.

It takes twenty-one days for a chick to hatch, which meant that if everything went well, on May twenty-first there would be baby chicks emerging. I was excited and could not wait! A hen that is sitting will talk to her eggs a few days before they hatch and the chicks will talk back to her through their shell. That is why the chicks know their mother’s voice so well.

Every morning when I fed the chickens, I checked the hen sitting on her clutch of eggs. I gave her food and water, and a little handful of grass to eat. At first, she did not eat the food I gave her, but after a couple of days she ate every bit of grass I offered her. I continued doing this day after day. It felt like the eggs were never going to hatch. I noticed the chicken sitting on her nest patiently waiting. She was more patient than I was.

On the morning of May twenty-first, I went to feed the sitting hen when I heard a peeping noise. I bent over to get a closer look and saw a little head poke out from under the mother hen’s wing. Later I found out there were three little chicks. I was extremely excited!

~Jonah