Scarlett's eggs.

My red hen Scarlett sure is one determined hen. With her egg yesterday, she sat on top of it in the nesting box all day long, not getting out till it was nearly time to lock up the gate of the coop. When I went out to the coop as the sun was going down, Scarlett was eating some chicken-feed so I took her egg from the nesting box when she wasn't looking.

This morning, Scarlett was in the same nesting box and she didn't get out of it all day long-- not even in the early evening when the other hens were getting settled on the roosting bar. I'm sure Scarlett laid another egg this morning, and I'm sure she's hoping to hatch that one also. The other three hens laid their eggs during the afternoon, and they left the eggs, left the coop, and went on about their day-- and Scarlett just sat there on top of her own egg.

I read the chapters in my chicken books about egg-laying and egg-hatching. They said that some chickens will never sit on their own eggs, and other hens will sit on a dozen eggs at once, regardless of who laid them. Scarlett, apparently, is a hen who has the patience to sit on her eggs till the baby chicks start to peck through the shells.

How do I explain to Scarlett that her eggs will never hatch into baby chicks? She needs a rooster to fertilize eggs that will hatch. We don't particularly want a rooster right now, so I'm guessing that Scarlett is going to keep sitting on top of eggs that will never be anything more than scrambled, hard-boiled or over easy. Sorry, Scarlett.