Broody Chickens

Nobody should ever tell a chicken that they are not supposed to do something. I have one hen that was a freebie, she is a production red. Production reds are not supposed to go broody, but guess what? She has gone broody and is diligently sitting on a nest of currently 6 eggs. All day yesterday, she sat on the nest in the little box in the feed room. She gathered the eggs left by the other hens and tucked them up under her then settled back down to keep them warm. She never left that nest once yesterday and so I finally decided she has gone broody and put a container of water close by for easy convenience. I did stick my hand under her to check to see how many eggs she had and to see if I needed to go looking for eggs from the other hens because I was not finding any. She had all six eggs for the day under her and she got very perturbed at my intrusion. Last year this hen never once showed any signs of broodiness. It makes me wonder if hens have a biological clock like women do. She is getting on in age and she has slowed down in her laying. She still lays the biggest eggs of the whole flock, but less of them. I wonder if she thinks this might be her last chance to have babies of her very own. Nature and God never cease to amaze me. This little red hen is absolute proof that God is in complete control. While man may have bred "broodines" out of some of the chickens, he gave that instinct right back to this little hen. Just goes to show that the power of God and the power of His grace should never be underestimated. So, I am hoping that all goes well and my little red hen stays safe and gets those babies her little chicken heart desires so badly. Blessings from the farm!