That is really nice of her!
Don't know if it's normal, but I took my 5 week old incubator chicks out to my coop, and my mother hen adopted them along with her 2 week old chicks. Wahoo!
How cute!
Adorable! Congrats!!!This is my first successful hatch. Here are my seven Easter Eggers! 3 hatched 5/22/15; 4 hatched 5/23/15. The rooster was a Lavender Americauna. The hens were Orpingtons (black and buff), and Red Sex Links. Sadly, Pluto the Rooster was killed by a red fox earlier that morning while protecting his flock. (He was such a good rooster!) A Red Sex Link hen was taken by the red fox as well.
No, these chick most likely will not end up as McNuggets. They are crossbreeds to make colorful eggs. It's too early to tell, but the one with the chipmunk-looking stripes seems to be a rooster (but that's just my guess.) We'll see. I don't have any experience when it comes from sexing chickens. Heck, I thought my alpha big red hen was a rooster for about five months... I wondered why she didn't crow. That's another story.
Out of fifteen eggs (yes, I'm a rookie and didn't realize that a hen's clutch needed to cover the eggs in the nest and not whole hen including her wings...) eight hatched. Seven survived. The one that did not hatch was an egg from the Lavender Americauna. The other four Americauna eggs didn't even pip. (I'm giving them two more days before I throw them away.) These eggs hatched on day 22.
It was hard to get the egg carton shot. These little chicks are full of spunk -- especially that chipmunk-striped one! It was one of the first three to hatch. I'm guessing that means that mama is doing a good job with them and they are strong and healthy.
