HollyOnce upon a time, there was a big red hen who lived on a farm. Early one morning, she woke up and went outside. There, under the coop in the straw, she found a duck egg.
“Who will help me care for this egg?” said the big red hen.
“Not I,” said the mama duck who laid it.
“Not I”, said daddy duck.
“Oh very well, I’ll do it myself.” said the big red hen–and so she did!
The Red Hen
Remember the story of the Little Red Hen? I had all but forgotten until we owned actual red hens. Kathy the Chicken reminds me of the hen in that story.
Kathy is our favorite chicken in the flock. My youngest carries her around the yard and Kathy loves it. She is a Rhode Island Red, a breed that’s not known for going broody. However, my crazy chicken lady senses told me otherwise about Kathy. If we had a rooster, I knew she would be an excellent mama hen.
Fox Attack
In a tragic turn of events that sometimes comes with life on a farm, predators found our flock. A red fox family got hungry, and we lost several ducks and chickens. Thankfully, Kathy made it unscathed. Spot and Duckzilla, a drake and a hen, are the only survivors out of nine Khaki Campbell ducks.
We were down to only one duck egg per day. Once spring had sprung, Duckzilla started hiding her eggs from me. The kids and I would collect the chicken eggs every morning, and find no duck eggs. I thought she had stopped laying altogether. One morning, I found her under the coop. She was sitting on a nest full of eggs that she had buried in the straw!
With no idea how old these eggs were, I opted not to collect them. The last thing I want to do is crack open an egg that’s viable or rotten! I watched Duckzilla closely for a couple days to see if she would incubate her eggs, but I was not holding my breath. Khaki Campbell ducks are notoriously bad mothers. Duckzilla would lay an egg in her nest at sunrise, sit on it for an hour or so, and abandon ship for the remainder of the day. I had figured as much. If these eggs were viable, they were going to die. So, now what?
Kathy!!!
Foster Hens
I went outside and collected the eggs from Duckzilla’s abandoned nest. I found Kathy, already in a nesting box, and slid the eggs underneath her. Without missing a beat, Kathy fluffed up her feathers and got comfortable. Her dedication to a clutch of eggs that weren’t even hers was downright inspiring.
Summer hit with a hot, humid vengeance. Poor Kathy patiently sat on the eggs, panting. I brought her cold water, and even hand fed her a few times. She made short, happy, clucking sounds as if to say “thank you!” I remember the days of being stuck under nursing babies and dying of thirst, and my mama heart went out to her. There are common threads of motherhood that span across species, in simple, yet profound, ways.
Another Foster Hen
While I was busy tending to Kathy, one of my other Rhode Island Red chickens, Red, found Duckzilla’s nest. Duckzilla would lay a new egg in it, and Red would sit on it the second Duckzilla waddled away. She growled at me if I tried to take it out from under her, so I left her be. She wanted to be a foster mama hen, too. I candled the eggs when Red left to eat, and a few of them were definitely viable. Now we had TWO chickens hatching out duck eggs! Kathy the red hen didn’t have to do it all by herself after all.
One June evening, I headed outside to close the coop and tuck the flock in for the night. The tree frogs sang, the crickets chirped and something else chirped, too. It was a familiar sound, but I couldn’t quite place it. I stopped and listened, and it was coming from the coop. I opened the nesting box lid; lo and behold, a tiny, wobbly duckling popped out from under Kathy to look back at me! I was so excited I could hardly sleep that night.
Proud Mama Foster Hens
By morning, the second duckling had hatched. Kathy was a proud mama! She and her babies bonded immediately. She kept them tucked under her wings as they slept, and protected them fiercely. They followed their mama Kathy absolutely everywhere.
Just like human babies, they’d cry if she dared to leave their sight, even for one second. About 2 weeks later, Red’s ducklings hatched. They bonded right away, Red brought them bugs, and she kept them warm and safe. Kathy and Red were amazing Mama hens to their foster ducklings!
Orphaned Eggs Saved
I honestly had no idea how any of this would go. It was all gut-feelings, google searches, trial and error, and trusting the mama hen’s instincts. We managed to save the orphaned eggs without an incubator, and inadvertently “replace” the ducks we’d lost to the red fox family.
The ducklings grew every day. Their Mama hens instinctively knew when their job raising little ones was done. They quietly, lovingly, let the ducks go be ducks. They are getting their colors now, and we have two males and two females. They’ve integrated into the flock beautifully. Sometimes, I see the now-grown ducklings free range alongside their foster mama hens. They may be in the “duck squad” now, but they haven’t forgotten the red hens that raised them.
