A Mixed Bag
Originally filed under the discontinued Strange Tales section.
When my Plymouth rock hen decided to go broody, instead of making her go off the brood I decided to set some eggs under her. I had plenty of orders for guinea fowl and had recently discovered a couple of nests so there were plenty of eggs.
I popped approximately sixteen eggs under her, marked the hatch date on the calendar, and left her be. In the meantime I had a duck that decided when the duck near by hatched her eggs she would come off and give her a helping hand rather than wait for her own little ducks to hatch. I gathered her eggs up and not really knowing their hatch date put them in an old incubator (with a dicky thermostat). Approximately two weeks later I glanced in the window of the old bator and much to my surprise there was an egg chipping. I checked the eggs and all bar three were over-cooked. I then went and checked the plynmouth rock hen. She was overdue by two days and she had eggs chipping.
Will I or won’t I, that was the question. Yes I will, was the answer. I put the three duck eggs under the hen with the emerging keets (baby guinea fowl) and waited. Next morning there was proud mum out in the sun with her mixed bag. She was chuffed and so was I.
By Jill Weaver