Fifi is now 9 months old.  I had a feeling she was broody for the first time and today my thoughts were confirmed.  There she was sitting in the favorite nesting box laying almost flat like a pancake.  Her eyes were glazed over and she was in a broody trance.  She was sitting on air and when I reached underneath of her feathery little chest, it was bare.  She had successfully ripped out all of her chest feathers and then some.  She has perfected the growl and the rare peck at the hand.  I wonder how often she will go broody?  Some hens go broody once a year and others, like Dolly, seem to be broody every couple of weeks or so.  Dolly even seems to be triggered into broodiness when other girls have decided to sit on imaginary eggs.  Some people try to break their chickens of broodiness.  I chose to let nature take it’s course.  With food and water in close proximity of the girls, I enjoy lifting up the nesting box lid and seeing three Silkies piled into one box,sitting on another chicken’s egg.  It is a wonderful feeling being a mother.  I can understand, fertile eggs or not, their desire to become one.