Farmer hatches hen-credible plan in depths of grief

It was a plan hatched in the depths of grief, but there were scenes of joy yesterday when farmer John Dolan finally laid eyes on his record-breaking hen that has who’s been stuffed for posterity.

And as the fowl fanatic from Banagher, Co Offaly brought his late-departed heroic hatching hen home, he said he hopes her new glass display case will help him spread Marmalade’s hen-credible story far and wide.

“Words can’t describe how happy I am to have her back,”Mr Dolan said.

“It’s just great to have her home. This is her rightful home.

“She died in February, and to have her gone out of the yard that length of time, it felt like decades.

“But I got a great kick out of it seeing her in the case.

“The more you look at her, the nicer she looks, and the more time you spend looking at her.

The world has to see her. History was broken by her. No other hen in any lifetime will do what she did.

The phenomenal red mottled leghorn, which who died in February aged just four and a half, was a giant in the hen world because of her prodigious hatching.

Hens can be expected to livebetween 12 and 14 years, an estimated 85% of hens do not hatch at all, and the ones that do canexpect to hatch twice a year.

But Marmalade set records with an average of five clutches of chicks a year, hatching a phenomenal 181 live chicks during the course of her short life.

She died in Mr Dolan’s arms in February, just two months before Mr Dolan said the Guinness World Book of Records intended to certify that she was the most prodigious hatcher in the world.

Despite his grief at her loss, he set out to ensure her story would live on.

He contacted taxidermist John Corcoran in Abbeyleix, andentrusted Marmalade’s remains to his care.

John, Anne and Emma Dolan, Gurtagown, Banagher, Co Offaly collecting their World Champion Hen Marmalade from Taxidermist Jim Corcoran in Abbeyliex, Co Laois. Picture Dan Linehan.

Mr Corcoran has spent the last few months trying to capture her character and personality, and his work was unveiled with Marmalade stuffed and mounted, scratching in the dirt for hayseed, alongside five baby chicks.

“He’s captured her likenessalright,” Mr Dolan said.

“He’s done a great job. We hope to put her on permanent display in the town at some stage.

“There will never be another like her.”

Mr Corcoran said he gets a lot of private and museum requests to stuff animals for display, but this one was special because of Marmalade’s pedigree.

“We had some fantastic photographs of her from her prime, and once you have a selection of photos, it’s easy enough,” saidMr Corcoran.

But what we really want to do is capture what the owner saw in them, and I hope we’ve done that with Marmalade.

Mr Dolan said he hopes to show Marmalade at the Tullamore Show on August 11.

Marmalade was feted during the 2018 Banagher St Patrick’s Day parade when Mr Dolan was named the grand marshal of the parade. The pair went viral afterwards when Marmalade was photographed supping from a pint of Guinness.