Mother Clucker

Have you raised 10 children? Successfully? All at the same time?   Well, Mother Clucker has, twice, and she has a few things to share about parenting success.

First, she would like you to know, "no body touches my babies."  If you think a mama bear is vicious, you should see Mother Clucker in action. She was a born mama and had a 100% hatch rate from 10 eggs her first go around. She worked hard to get them out of the shell and SHE WILL CUT YOU if you mess with her babies. For real. Cut. You.  Want to successfully raise bitties? Protect them with everything you have.

Second, Mother Clucker doesn't care if that's her baby or not. Same rules apply. Chick lost it's mom? My baby now, and loved just the same. I added a fluffy butt from an incubator batch to Mother Clucker's brood this year and she didn't flinch. She didn't for a moment think, oh, this one is a different color or has different shaped eyes and therefore it's not my problem. No, she took that baby in and guess what? She will cut you over that baby too.

"Look but don't touch."

Third, Mother Clucker doesn't spare the rod. Chicks get out of line and boom, pecked on the head. She isn't a big talker, but boy do those chicks listen. I'm pretty sure where good moms are concerned, it's best for bitties to have a healthy dose of fear of the wrath of mom lest their errant ways get them picked off by a hawk. Or get a pile of feathers plucked out if they can't learn their place in the flock...a truly painful lesson no one wants to learn the hard way because they didn't learn it at an early age.

Fourth, Mother Clucker has a warm spot for her babies. Always. Scared, cold, shy, tired bitties always have a safe spot under her wing. I've heard that saying so many times, "taken under her wing."  If you've never seen this play out in real life, you can't appreciate the affection a mother hen has for her bitties. Also, see "first."  She might have one or two standing on her back, running around making a bunch of racket, or playing how far can I go before I get pecked on the head but you can rest assured, when life gets tough, those babies run for Mama.

Sometimes I wonder why people can't have half the character animals have. What more could a mother or person want someone to say about them than what I've observed about Mother Clucker. I certainly hope that despite a few pecks on the head here and there, my kids always know when the world is too much to handle, there's always a warm spot under my wing.