Meet Annie. She's an Australorp, which means she has the tendency to go broody (sit on eggs until they hatch instead of laying her daily egg and hopping right back out of the nesting box). Australorps are known for their broody nature and Annie, true to her breed, goes broody quite often.
In fact, she helped me write my article on
Breaking a Broody Hen last spring because we didn't have room for any more chicks and I wouldn't let her sit on infertile eggs. But she really wanted to be a Mom. So I promised her that this spring, if we could coordinate our schedules, I would let her sit on some fertile eggs. We did, and she did...and now Annie has five brand new baby chicks!