Of Life and Times

We have a chicken who has been more persistent than a child who keeps saying, "Are we there yet?" She nested in the rafters of our carport and kept accidentally dropping her eggs off the ledge. We shooed her away from there and she nested among the plants, we drove her away again then found her nesting in our front container box. This happened time and time again. She was always very protective of her eggs. Only when we were able to physically dislodge her from the nest were we able to get rid of her latest clutch, which almost always consisted of at least eight eggs.

This morning Elaine told me to come outside and see the latest changes to the fern alley. When I rounded the corner I was not at all surprised to find the same hen. But this time she was obviously dead. When Elaine picked her up we got a surprise. Whatever killed her had also completely gutted her. There were no entrails left, just the carcass. The real surprise was that even as all that was happening to her she was still tenaciously clutching one of her eggs in one foot.

Never underestimate the faithfulness of a mother's love for her offspring.