1 day old chick with 1 week old chicks

[atikin]

can I put a day old chick with two week old chicks and mum?

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Maybe, but mom may reject it. Make sure where she sleeps is COMPLETELY dark and slip new chick under her. Be there in the morning to see if she accepts it or rejects it, and be ready to move quickly.

 

[atikin]

Mum is a silkie

and the day old chick came froma sussex egg so relativley big and the other chicks are bantams so will probley be around the same sizeish

 

[hokankai]

I had this happen with my broody hen because two of her eggs were a week older than the others. She killed one of the babies as it was hatching out of its shell, pulled its head off, but I put a towel over her cage and she allowed the rest to hatch.

 

[atikin]

ouch!

 

[hokankai]

Your hen will know that baby does not belong. They know by sight, smell, and sound. I personally wouldn't risk it, even with a silkie, unless you can make it pitch black for a whole day so she can listen to it peep...but then the other babies won't be able to find their food/water. However, mama has already taught her babies and will be moving on with other things so the newcomer will have missed those essential lessons in the first days of life.

 

[seramachick8]

I had a buff orpington hen sitting for 2 months and snakes kept getting them right before they hatched and we kept giving them to her but one finally hatched and we were scared so we moved her to the house and she continued to sit and ended up with three babies and she wouldn't adopt one of the same kind from the incubator. After a few weeks we sold her babies and we let some chicks (that were slightly younger than the ones she hatched) run around outside and she immediately adopted them. I think it depends on the hen silkies tend to be less violent birds