I feel very bad, however she's really brought it on herself. In order to end brooding season, they tell us you need to remove the brooder, ie., hen sitting on eggs, for those of us not in the know, for a period of time until she well, gets over it really. Whilst up until now we have left them to their own devices our hen population has spiralled somewhat. And when they decide to brood, it seems they just go into a dazed coma. It's like they shut down completely. We had a chicken that dedicated so much time to sitting on unhatchable eggs she developed a facial tumour and eventually died. So rather than risk this occurring again, we made an executive decision. And as far as the unhatched eggs go, well it's just further bad news for this little lady who burrowed herself into the long weeds under the apple tree. I just didn't have the heart to tell her. She's been sitting on apples - not eggs. All this time she's been depleting herself of sunlight, food and water for the sake of hatching a bunch of granny smiths. Tragic. I'm surprised she didn't wonder why they were so green? Anyway, hopefully she'll forgive us. We just won't give her any of the left over apple crumble for a while yet.
