4weekers and adoption

[Beldenfarm]

Can you introduce 4 week old chicks (3 of them) to a super broody hen? She has been broody for almost 2 months and is relentless but we can't let her hatch out eggs, since we don't have any space for more chickens since we just got chicks! So my question is, is it too late to introduce them?

 

[Judy]

This is usually done when they are a few days old. But there is actually no way to answer you with certainty. I once had a broody suddenly decide that the 3 week old chicks who had been growing up next to her (separated by chicken wire) decide the chicks were hers. She started squawking and pacing along this fence, as if she were a mama who had been separated from her "babies." So I tried them together, and she acted like a new mama for a month, corraling them, offering feed, protecting them, etc. It was a bit comical since they wanted their independence and weren't very well behaved "children," lol.

So, you just never know.

 

[Beldenfarm]

This is usually done when they are a few days old.  But there is actually no way to answer you with certainty.  I once had a broody suddenly decide that the 3 week old chicks who had been growing up next to her (separated by chicken wire) decide the chicks were hers.  She started squawking and pacing along this fence, as if she were a mama who had been separated from her "babies."  So I tried them together, and she acted like a new mama for a month, corraling them, offering feed, protecting them, etc.  It was a bit comical since they wanted their independence and weren't very well behaved "children," lol. 


So, you just never know.

So is not unsafe to try introducing them? They certainly would be a lot easier to handle if they were adopted!

 

[Judy]

It might be. Hens can attack and kill new chicks, or ignore them, or just pester them, or accept them. Unfortunately, there is only one way to find out which will happen.

Here is a good thread about integration:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/803815/integrating-two-groups/0_20

 

[donrae]

You can try it, but the chicks are old enough I'm not sure they'll graft to the hen, even if she takes them.