Daily Celestial Challenge, Tuesday Animal Kingdom: Meet Nugget the Snuggly hen!

Nugget was one of three of the very first chicks we hatched. She's Roast and Ginger’s offspring.

A young Nugget!

As you can imagine, those three chicks got a lot of attention and saw us as their mamma. Just like typical teenagers, as they grew the wanted less to do with us as obviously there were more important things to do! However, when they matured Nugget started approaching us for cuddles when we went into the run. This set off a chain reaction and now the top four hens will all pile in for hugs and the lower hens will wait hesitantly to see if they can sneak one in without getting pecked by the bosses.

Group hug!

She is the second highest hen in her flock; her half sister is the queen of this flock. Being a cross breed she has what is known as hybrid vigour. So she lays very well, but her broody tendencies are also increased, so she'll have breaks from laying while she tries to hatch some eggs. This hopefully gives her reproductive system a bit of a break.

Recently Buffy, one of her flock mates, hatched and raised some chicks. They are now 6 weeks old and Buffy has decided they're big enough to go it alone. It seems they still want a bit of comfort though, because I found them huddling around Nugget and her clucking broodily over them!

I've been finding Nugget in the nest box at night with some of the chicks tucked under her wings.

It isn't uncommon for a hen to take on chicks that are a few days to a week old, but I've never heard of one taking them on at this age without already having some of her own.

This post was inspired by @sirknight's Daily Celestial Challenge

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