I've been completely smitten with Weezie since I brought her home as a tiny little chick from a Blue Ridge feed store the Thanksgiving 0f 2008. So when she decided this spring she wanted to be a momma I did my best to help her out. I snuck her little unfertilized eggs out from underneath her and replaced them with fertile eggs from my other hens that happen to reside with Mr. Edgar, one of my roosters. She sat and she sat and she sat. Nothing happened. After 24 days or so I snuck those eggs out and replaced them with new ones (they should've hatched in 21 days). Same process - she sat and sat and sat. Although several times she was sitting beside the eggs instead of on them.. I don't think she quite had the process down but boy was she determined! So when those didn't hatch either I removed them, told Weezie I was sorry and that she was just going to have to try again next spring and all this sitting was bad for her! She needed to get on with her life as a chicken - out scratching for bugs, taking dirt baths and napping in the sun. But she wasn't hearing any of it. She refused to budge. She continued to sit - on nothing! I'd take her out of her little cage, she'd cackle at me, run around for about 2 minutes and then run right back in and sit again. This went on for nearly 2 weeks - I really thought she'd give up after a few days but I was proven wrong.
This may sound a little crazy but I could tell she was sad. She wanted to be a momma so bad. So on a recent trip to the feed store they had just gotten in a shipment of bantam chicks - it was Weezie's lucky day! I picked out this one odd little black and yellow chick that I just knew Weezie would love and boy was I right! I got home with him, put him in with Weezie, they looked at each other, he chirped, Weezie cooed at him a bit and then he nuzzled himself right under her wing and that was it - Weezie was in love! She's as happy as she can be now and she's just the best little momma a chick could ask for - I'm sure of it!
So here's my completely spoiled rotten Weezie and her new adopted "child" Watson after a long day of scratching up bugs and worms under my shrubbery =).
You gotta love happy endings!