Let me tell you about a little hen we use to have. Now mind you I am a cat and dog person but the neighbors had penned up chicken and one day let them go. Naturally they came to my house.
We have a cat door for our many cats, and we have dogs as well. Our cats can come and go as they please through the cat door. We often get strangers that manage to come in and some never leave. But that is another story.
When you have cats you must have litter boxes. The 5 I have located through out the house all have covers on them. One is in my bedroom. This particular little box is very rarely used. It is off in a dark corner. So imagine my surprise when I lifted the cover to scoop I find a beautiful blue egg. My little aracana found this perfect spot to lay her eggs.
Now mind you, this little girl would have had to navigate the cat door. AND… gotten by the dogs. So the fact that she got in, looked around and found this spot is simply fascinating to me. What harm could she do?
Everyday she added to her clutch. After about 20 eggs were laid it was time to sit. In the middle of the night you could hear the litter gently being moved, she was a good mother stirring the eggs ever so often. Once a day she would sneak out of the house to eat, drink and poop, then sneak back in. Never did she make a mess.
Weeks later in the middle of the night the babies started hatching I could hear the little darling peeping. I waited a day to make sure that all had hatched and then picked up the entire litter box and moved it outside to a waiting pen.
Critter really are amazing.
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