“Cluck – cluck – cluck…” goes the broody hen.  If the weather is good I open the door of her broody box, and after a minute she makes a big squawking show of taking a walk.

She flaps her wings, she charges other chickens and pecks them into submission (or avoids being pecked in turn by higher-ups), she rips at a fallen plant, she takes a dust bath.  Oh, and empties her much-backed-up bowels.  Impressive.

Then she goes back into the broody box, “Cluck – cluck – cluck…”.

Except today I lost track of her as she wandered about.  I trusted her to take care of business and return to her eggs.  Once before she walked in to the coop where she grabbed a snack and came back out.  Today on an egg collecting round I found her sitting in one of the tiny nest boxes of the coop warming some else’s (unfertilized) eggs.  Calamity Jane, you dumb cluck.

I scooped her up (“Cluck – cluck – cluck”) and delivered her to the broody box where she eagerly went to ‘her’ eggs and sat back down.  I just hope her eggs didn’t get too cold.  Four more days to go…

UPDATE: Hatched!