At home: wild chick surprise...x

Four days ago, Poppy's wet nose sniffed out a problem under a holly bush in our garden. It was her the first day of her trial with us. She has been working on scoring doggy plus points ever since she arrived, and started on superb note.

This little Light Sussex hen has been hiding under that holly bush, brooding a large clutch of eggs since, I guess almost a month. She hasn't escaped from the chicken enclosure. She just never returned to the enclosure after the pen was closed back up to its original size for the winter.

She chose a clever hiding hole. That prickly holly bush hide out would have protected her against a fox at least, and certainly Poppy's nose took a prickle. We moved her to a brooding pen. The eggs she sat on are not hers. She's like a cuckoo. She's sat on the aracanas blue eggs. They are bigger eggs, than she would have laid herself.

I hasn't held much hope for the eggs either. The aracanas are new hens this year. They would have been covered by a non aracana cockerel. A cockerel that is now long gone. So these chicks will probably have inherited genes and a mixture of colours from mixed breeding.

They are literally a wild surprise. I don't know why this hen chose to brood secretly out of season, but Poppy led us to her. Possibly saved her and the noisy chicks from certain death.

Sometimes its hard to see the good in a difficult situation, until a small dog shows you were to look... Well done Poppy....x