Cupcake

NO ORDINARY CHICKEN!

It all happened out of the blue! Or was it inside the red?

As Kadaknath chickens don’t get broody, all our eggs are incubated. For this reason I purchased a couple of Potch Koekoeks locally as they just love to sit. One immediately went broody so a neighbour gave me a few “plaas chicken” eggs for her to sit on. For some reason the broodiness lasted only 2 days so I decided to incubate the “plaasies”!

SURPRISE!!!! 17 days in, with the eggs still turning in the tray, out fell Cupcake, way ahead of time. Her friends didn’t exist for a further 4 days.

Having no other babies for her to play with and learn from, she became a pet, learning her eating and drinking skills from us humans! She loved lying stretched out on her back or sitting on my hat or shoulder like a parrot.

As she grew up, Cupcake followed us everywhere like a dog. She didn’t really like other chickens. She started laying her own unfertile eggs and was very protective of them. I swapped them out daily so that she had either Kadaknath or Orpington fertile eggs to eventually sit on.

Once she sat, she really sat!! There was no getting her off. She never pecked at you if you wanted to take a look under, but rather growled like a dog! It was so funny.

When her babies arrived she was the proudest and best mom ever. Since then, Cupcake has proudly been the surrogate mom to many of our Kadaknath and Orpington chicks and even takes on adoptions out of the incubator when she’s not too busy!