Pengy Meringue the miracle chick

It's a fact that some chicken mums are pretty bad at being mums. They may like the idea when they're sitting on an ever-growing clutch of eggs, many of which they steal from their hen friends. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty of actually dealing with a chick it can be a pretty poor show.

In the case of poor old Pengy, it's a story straight from a chicken soap opera. Her momma couldn't resist the urge to keep adding to an ever expanding clutch of eggs and she lost track of what was what. She stayed longer than the 21 days needed to hatch an egg but eventually gave up, her labors fruitless. The poor hen grew sad and went through a few days hiding in bush feeling bad about herself. The whole thing broke my heart.

Luckily, she had a nest buddy who had managed to hatch her own chick she allowed her chick-less friend to co-parent her little one.

In the midst of the hen's story came the start of little Pengy's dramatic entrance. We found Pengy, a lone chick that had hatched in the pile of eggs on the 3rd March during a particularly cold evening.

We didn't think there was much hope for the poor little thing but we kept her warm and dry and the little cold and wet mess of sticky fluff started chirping and moving about.

The next day she was a fuzzy little ball but she spent lots of time simply standing still and staring. Standing in a corner and staring blankly is a bog standard area for concern for most species I'd say, so we got a little gang of hens to keep her company.