BLOGG # 80 A BROODING HEN

A brooding Hen

 “I am so sorry my love that I have had to put you into isolation in this wire cage. I don’t want to but I have to. I know you want to be a mama very much and I understand, but you have to believe I can’t afford your babies just now so I have to isolate you in this cage. I love you but I have to do this. Here I have brought you some treats-some yoghurt, some cherries and raspberries you love. You have fresh water and it is cool in here, so it isn’t so bad. I have to go now to town and won’t see you today but know that I love you”

  This tender conversation,heavily accented with French overtones I overheard as my friend comforted her “brooding hen.  I was visiting her on her isolated farm on Thetis-a west coast island and I  was helping her in the hen house at the time.  The brooding hen as all you farm girls are aware of-and it certainly brought back vivid memories of my mother as she struggled with her broody hens- is a hen who suddenly has an overwhelming desire to have babies and refuses to get off her eggs until they hatch. As anyone raised on a farm knows, you are in danger of having your fingers badly pecked if you try to take the eggs away and the hen will literally starve herself to death sitting on her eggs refusing to get up until the urge to breed subsides and she returns to normality. This urge unfortunately is due to bad timing and we of the female sex understand all about bad timing. My friend explained that if she allowed the hen to naturally breed her eggs, the majority of the eggs would be male and the cockerel would systematically peck them to death as there can only be one male in a brood and she doesn’t want that, so the hen had to be isolated from the rest of the brood in a cage and her eggs taken away. She is especially separated from the cockerel-in this case a handsome cocky Banting  with wonderful blue black feathers and deep burnt orange plumage which he strutted effectively as he ruled his small brood with iron control. His brood consisted of three Banting hens,one grey speckled unknown breed-known for her pale blue eggs, and a huge “Buff Orpington” an exotic and plump breed famous for being bred by the “Duchess of Devonshire in England who, I believe, prized them highly - another example of my store of useless knowledge. Anyway this Buff Orpington was not well loved, especially by the little  Banting hens who were very jealous of her and pecked her remorsefully if she tried to feed with them and of course she rarely laid eggs as the cockerel was not fond of her either.

I contemplated this colony of chickens sadly. It seems we are not the only species that discriminate against beings that are different. These females were very vicious in their attack and it was interesting and frustrating to their owner that the Buff Orpington did not fight back though she was three times their size. I came to the uncomfortable conclusion that perhaps these traits of discrimination in all species runs very deep and how will we ever overcome them if even these five chickens with abundant love and care couldn’t.

I came to the easy assumption that chickens are stupid anyway and was corrected by my friend. They are exceptionally  intelligent I was told and was told to observe the cockerel  who seemed to be making a lot of noise and appeared to be hogging all the scattered food. Not at all I was told. Cockerels eat very little. He is not eating. He is pecking at the choicest selection of the food and cackling to his brood to follow his example to choose the most nutritious-  but he himself was eating very little.  In fact this fancy strutting egoist was very busy making sure all his females-with the exception of the Buff Orpington- were well looked after and thriving and it goes without saying that he was also- the conceited egoist. But  the broody hen remained silent ii her cage and I ,too,remained broody all afternoon thinking of the inexplicable actions of chickens and of all living creatures on this planet including my own actions. All this came from a broody hen who wanted to be a mama more than life itself.