You will need a lot of context for this but let’s start quite simple (or you can skip and go to the adventure). Pingu is a female chick hatched naturally under a broody hen on 26th August 2026, somewhere between midnight (my last coop check) and 5:40 in the morning (my first coop check). Yes, I don’t sleep much in summer, but that’s another story.

She’s the daughter of André the Giant, my most marvellous Brahma rooster, an angel incarnate, the best boy ever, you got the gist of it. And Stronza, a barred orpington mix hen whose name speaks loudly of her attitude. She’s the most opinionated, brutal hunter in the farm (so far she successfully hunted and ate several frogs, snakes and mice, on her own). She will let you know if you bother her or if she wants more treats, and she’s not going to be kind about it.

Surrogate mother, that was Olive. An Australorp, steady, calm, positive and massive. She sat on that egg with dedication, she did all fine, and the baby hatched with no hiccups. Fast forward 36 hours after hatch.

I never take breaks in the morning, only afternoon, but I felt like “maybe a quick 15m check”. Holy hell I couldn’t find the baby. In its 25cm tall walled crate. I searched the entire coop, the mama was outside not very happy either, pacing. I checked the entire Sanctuary slowly and I couldn’t find Pingu and then I saw this minuscule fluff mass, not bigger than a dust bunny, sitting WITH THE OTHER HENS in the dustbathing place, where they relax during the hottest hours, which is almost 5 meters from the crate, and across different soil levels, a concrete step and whatnot. A one day hatchling, let’s repeat. I almost had a [redacted] heart attack. I brought Pingu back, exchanged the crate with a plastic 40cm tall one, redid the bedding, water and food stations. Even the mother Olive was unhappy: he pecked the baby (not in a harmful way) until Pingu went back under her belly. That was fun [no].

So here I am with all the knowledge of the internet telling me this isn’t normal but thinking that mostly what AI and others refer to is incubator and breeder box hatching, where the newly hatched are not very lively for hours. They don’t have a mother talking to them (clucking softly) for days before hatching. They don’t have the advantage a “natural” hatch gives. And while I do have an incubator, and a heating pad in case things would go wrong, I am more and more convinced that for me, broody hens are the way to go, and if that’s my bottleneck for my plan, then be it.