As the breeding season winds down and I consolidate the groups of young birds into easier to protect pens, I like combine small broods with larger broods. My favorite thing to do is place a couple small groups under of chicks under a hen that is in the process of hatching off her own clutch. Thus approach is not always possible since the small brood is sometimes younger. Over last two days I have been trying to combine two gamechicken chicks with a brood of Missouri Dominique hen that is four days older. Initially I place the chicks under the dom hen at dusk. The following morning she pecked with warning signals at the new chicks. I placed them in cage in the area the dom hen had with her brood. She had interest only in her own chicks. The following evening I placed chicks back under her for a second night. The following morning she tried to flog them which have killed them in seconds if I did not intervene. Frustrated, I grabbed all of her chicks and placed them in a small cage with the two the hen just attacked. The hen was then allowed to see and hear all closely without having access to them. Chicks were provisioned for the day with all kept in warm location. By end if day I was able to release all chicks and the hen made no attacks on even chicks I was trying to introduce. Next time I will go straight to combining chicks immediately during the day. The delayed imprinting may require hen to be clucking and new chicks to be chirping back in a manner that does not occur during the night.
