Short Stories in the Shuswap

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The Storey of Chicklet
by Helen Stoddart

One day our next door neighbour came over to tell us that their favourite Hen was broody and wanted some eggs to sit on. Heinz had lost his rooster the year before and he hoped that we could help.

We had a half dozen domestic ducks and would gather their delicious eggs every day. We figured that some would be fertilized as there were quite a few wild ducks along with our own. So the next morning we picked up 2 or 3 eggs and handed them over to Heinz. He told us later that day his hen was sitting on them quite contentedly.

For a couple of weeks we would go over to see the hen and you could almost see her smile as if she had a secret. Sure enough one morning she was wandering around the yard showing off her newly hatched baby. The thing was, this baby was a duckling.

Heinz's hen carried on for days showing off her baby till one day Heinz and I heard a very upset hen squawking at the top of her voice. Her baby was in the water bowl. She was sooo upset! The duckling of course was having a ball floating round and round in the water.

Heinz dug in a little pond so that "Chicklet" could get in and out easily. After a while the old hen would just watch and not worry.

About a month later we introduced "Chicklet" to our mother duck (she loved having ducklings and would take in any orphan we offered to her). "Chicklet" lived with our other ducks for years and never seemed to miss her mother hen.

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