Once there was a hen who wanted nothing more than children of her own. Chicks to love, to keep warm, and to teach the ways living of a good life.

But there was a problem; every time she made a nest, her eggs were taken away from her so that they would never hatch.

The hen tried hiding her nest in all sorts of places, and when that didn’t work, she tried fighting back to protect them. All to no avail.

Then one day the hen had an idea; if she couldn’t hatch eggs of her own, then she would find a way to raise someone else’s. She watched and waited, until one day she found what she was looking for; a nest without a mother to watch after the eggs.

The hen guarded this nest as her own, dutifully turning the eggs and keeping them warm, until a few weeks later they hatched.

The hen was surprised to discover that her new babies were not in fact chicks, but ducklings instead. She loved them all the same.

On a warm summer day, the hen decided her babies old enough to go outside of their safe, hidden nest, and led her ducklings out into the yard.

She called for them to stay close and showed them where the best food was. But when she brought them to the water for a drink, her babies all chirped happily and jumped into the deep pond of water.

The hen was frantic, pacing and calling to them from the shore. When they finally came back to her safe and sound, the hen realized that her little ducks could not be raised in the same way as chicks.

So every day when she brought her children out to the yard, she waited by the shore to let her ducklings swim and play, and was proud to call herself their mother.

This is based on a true story that I got to witness and be a part of myself. That hen raised her ducklings until they hit the teen stage and decided to join the duck flock permanently. Though there was one thing I didn’t mention, that nest she found; it wasn’t abandoned. The mother duck had left for a drink, and came back for it. The hen chased her away to go make a new nest.

A few years later one of that hen’s ducklings pulled an uno reverse and hatched her own batch of chickens. It probably would have become a family tradition, but they were all roosters.