How can you tell? I feel like I have gone through labor and delivery myself! As I see how happy they all are...the 2 newborns are playing together, crawling over and under their mothers and the moms taking such good care of them, it makes me want to never eat chicken again! Such precious few chicks are privileged to be raised like this! It is sad, isn't it?
Thank you so much for your offer of help. This web community has been a tremendous help through this! We did raise our other chickens from a few days old, but this is their first brooding season and we got excited about the idea of seeing them produce their own chicks. Fun!
Happy to have found this. I have two hens in the same nest box and was wondering about separating them. In the beginning it was just one silkie, and my EE just got in the box to lay. Now that the silkie has been sitting a few weeks the EE has decided to join her permantly. Seems very squishy and crowded but I don't want to disturb them for no reason if they can share nicely.
Isn't it funny to see this? Our two did great. They co-mothered the chicks and their teamwork was amazing to watch. They truly were scrunched together but only one chick was smothered shortly after hatching. One of the mothers tired of mothering before the other, and the second one was faithful, 100%, like Horton!