One day I discovered a hen still sitting on the nest box in the evening and I thought: oh, a late egg. When she still was sitting there – and more or less seemingly non-responsive and very flattened, I knew something else was happening.

A broody hen. Broody means a hen sits and broods and she is gonna just keep sitting unless you “break” her broodiness or till chicks are hatched.

They look as if in an altered state, seemingly staring into some mysterious space sitting flattened out on their nest. So I call it: broody = chicken zen. If you approach, they will puff themselves up and make  particular sounds – and – depending on breed – might peck you.

When off the nest, they make sounds they never make otherwise and look 2-3 times as big as you have ever seen them. They will eat very fast, have a very large stinky poop and hurry back to their nest – unless they end up on another one accidentally. But that is for another page.