Yes, she's broody alright

This afternoon I paused from working in the garden to go check out the chicken coop.  Four of the chickens were out and about.  Broody was in the coop for some reasons.

As I began to open up the hatch, I couldn't help but wonder what I'd find.

Sure enough, she puffed herself up to close to twice her normal width just to seem threatening.

She was also very hunkered down in the box.  I had to grab her right hip to lift her up.  She was leaning way forward.  Sure enough, she was really bearing down on top of an egg.

 

And this is why we refer to her as "Broody." 

Wifey and I discussed how we want to handle this little phenomenon.  We're a little concerned that if we promptly get Broody a few chicks to "hatch" that she'll start threatening the other younglings and those remaining four will die out.

The current plan is to contact the feed store and find out how far through the summer they're going to be getting chicks.  Ideally, we wait for these chicks to get about a month old (or a little older) so we can introduce them when they get to be about full-chicken size then introduce a few new chicks to Broody who will take them as being "hers."  That would break her of being broody. 

Unfortunately, we would end up with 12 chickens, but it's a relatively simple matter of selling off a few of the remaining chickens to other people to get back down to 9 or 10.