Two weeks ago, when I was locking our chickens in our hen house for the night, I noticed one of our Buff Orpington's was missing. I count all the chickens everynight. (We have many varieties.) I figured our neighbor's dog got loose again and got her.

Well, last night, while taking care of our horse, I moved some bales of straw, and I saw a buff colored wing pop out. Oh, no! I figured that the buff must have been in the straw to lay eggs, and couldn't get out, and died. I felt so bad for her! Suddenly, a head poped out of the straw, and she started clucking! I moved some more bales of hay, and found her sitting on 20 eggs!!! It looked like a cartoon of a chicken sitting on this huge pile of eggs!!! Apparently, she'd gone broody, and was using the space between the straw bales as her own private nest. Our roosters were both killed by our neighbor's dog, so the eggs can't hatch, but she was still trying. I brought her back to the henhouse last night, but this morning, when I let the chickens out, she went right back to her straw bale home. Of course the eggs are no longer there!

For once we got a happy surprise!![img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]