Overwhelmed Momma Chicken?

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rccola7

rccola7

In the Brooder
5 Years
May 20, 2014
24
1
31
My 6-month-old bantam Cochin Sweetie just hatched 12 eggs yesterday (whew!) and this morning two chicks were laying out of her nest in the cold, twitching. I brought them in and warmed them up, and they seem fine now, so I put them all in a large plastic tub with a heat lamp so if any wander off at least they won't freeze. I have only raised chicks in an incubator, and I am unfamiliar with doing it the "natural" way, so I'm not sure what normal mother hen behavior is...is she an inattentive mother? Are they too many chicks for her to take care of? How much should I interfere? Currently she has decided to sit on them in the food dish...
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Last edited:
I think you're doing the right thing, sometimes in the first week or two the chicks will wander and not know to get back under the hen, 12 is a lot for a bantam hen to cover and keep track of, and she really can't go and get them, you are going to have to help her for a few weeks, plus as they grow they won't fit under her, I have had a bantam cochin with as many as five at a time and I thought that was chaotic.
 
Maybe Sweetie thinks the rim on the bowl will help keep them together! :) She doesn't look inattentive in the pic. She looks like she's second guessing her ddcision to hatch 12 babies! Please post pictures as they grow.
 

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