Pecking order thrown into chaos

At this very minute little cracks in the eggs are spreading out and if I listen carefully, faint cheep cheeps can be heard.

The story goes that one of the point of lay Speckeldy hens that I bought, went quite quickly into broody mode. That means she insisted on hogging a prime nest in the hen house, the main one that the guinea fowls favoured, and generally upsetting the whole status quo and pecking order in the fowl world. We fell into a daily ritual in which I would throw her off the nest and as soon as my back was decently turned, she would return.

Eventually, just over five weeks ago, I decided to let her sit a clutch of eggs in a place of my choosing. A nice hen des res in an old pet carrier ( very useful things for broody hens) in a quiet place in the barn. She hated it. Refused to sit. Cackled and carried on, kicked the eggs about.

Back to the hen house. Broody again. Back to the des res.

Same carry on. By now she was tempting chicken casserole time, but in what I thought was a cunning move I let her sit a clutch of eggs in the hen house, but marked all of the dozen guinea fowl eggs that I put under her. O

n a daily basis I lifted her up and removed any eggs that other hens and guinea fowl laid under her. But then I went away for a week and came back to find her perched on top of a huge pile of eggs. Plus my little flock of guinea fowl had disappeared. Obviously something traumatic had happened. The bully.

We now have the guinea fowl back but I have no idea where they are laying. They range up to two miles from home but come back to roost in the orchard. There is no way I can find out under which hedge, patch of nettles they are laying, so I am not even trying. But I had great hopes for the hen.

Unfounded. Nothing hatched at all on the due date. I gave her extra time. Still nothing. Searching on the internet I found a man who had day old chicks and contacted him.

No day old hen chicks, but he had six day old guinea fowl chicks. Result. The hen hated them. Trampled one to death. We put them in with some week old ducklings. They trampled another one. Next into their own run with water and feed. And instantly drowned one.

Now three chicks ( and one is distinctly dodgy) shelter under a heat lamp and the hen is out on the street.

But as a last chance I put the eggs in the incubator. "Switch it off and throw them out" John said. "They won't be any good now."

We shall see.