Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

The number of broodies are definitely growing: we now have no less than one duck (out of our three), three turkeys (out of five) and four chickens (out of 21) all determined to become mums. And if they cannot find their own eggs to sit on they try to share with 'friends' who already have some. In the first photo we have our rather noisy 'lavender' bantam trying to share with Queenie and in the second we have Katherine now sharing eggs with Josephine. It's all rather hilarious but nonetheless needs handling carefully as the last thing we want is for the incubating eggs to be broken or left, due to birds arguing over them.
Last year Katherine was a brilliant mum and so we feel quite confident that she will be good again. We may give her some of her own eggs and let Josephine have all her original 16/17 and then let them sit side by side until the first hatching time. Some broody poultry can get VERY aggressive towards other birds and/or chicks and even kill chicks that are not their own. We are lucky enough to have never had a problem with birds sharing and feel that if the birds concerned have chosen to sit together and don't argue during this time, then when it comes to actually raising the chicks, things should be okay. We HAVE had birds 'stealing' chicks to raise as their own and also 'leaving' their chicks with another 'mum' whilst they go off elsewhere! But we have never had chicks injured or worse as a part of all this!
Female poultry can turn into quite different characters when broody and part of the joy in raising chicks this way is getting to know the adult birds and observing how they behave when incubating a clutch of eggs and learning what they like/don't like. Queenie is a stunning broody who is always reliable, doesn't mind us handling her and on the whole looks after herself well. The lavender bantam has not been broody before but we can tell you now she is VERY protective and not at all bothered about giving us a healthy peck if we go too near her. We will probably end up giving her some of her own eggs and observing from a distance!!