Mother Love

Yuki is such a little girl, less than half the size of, say, one of the buff Orpingtons, but she has the determination and heart of a mother lion.  She has decided that she is going to hatch a clutch of eggs, come hell, high water, or me.  Every day now I find her on the nest.  She gives a warning growl, and if I don't back off, she swells up like a blow fish, as she is starting to do in photo two.  She will sit on the nest all day, darting out for a bite of grain or a mouthful of water before settling back again...even if there is no egg. 

Since her attempts at intimidation didn't work, she turned her back on me, hoping that if she ignored me I'd just go away.  

My hope is that she will just give up this fight for babies that will never come.  It breaks my heart because she is so instinctively protective of her eggs.  That instinct has been bred out of most commercially raised chickens.  Most of the hens I've raised never go broody and could care less about that round thing that dropped out their bum. 

Come spring, I may go on the hunt for a Silkie rooster.  I would love to see what a Silkie chick looks like, and Yuki needs an outlet for her mother love.