Chances that Mama will take injured baby back.

[DanaMirelle]

I had a hen toss her first hatchling out of the nest two days ago. I don't know why, but she injured it in the process. It's foot was badly bruised and it can't walk on it yet. It seems to be improving thanks to the help of members here.

The hen went on to hatch three more eggs. One yellow guy passed (got stuck and couldn't get to mom). The hen is now happily mothering the last two. The injured chick is yellow, the two with Mom are black.

What are the chances I'm going to be able to sneak the injured chick back under mom at night when it is healed up enough to get around? What's the age deadline for sneaking a chick under a Mama hen? If I tried to do that, would I need to wake up at 4 am to supervise the hen waking up to the new chick or . . . ?

The chick recognized Mama, but I just don't know if I can trust the Mama hen. I put the chick on the ground near mom and siblings when Mama brought the chicks out the first time, and I hovered. The chick tried to quickly hobble to mom's wing making excitable sounds, mom just side eyed the chick with increased clucking (same sounds she made for the others, but faster). I didn't let the chick go all the way over because it's the middle of the day and the chick is still very much struggling to walk, but the chick definitely wanted Mama.

Any advise?

 

[DanaMirelle]

Does anyone have any insight?

Today is day three. The chick is now walking gently on the foot instead of the hock, but still limping pretty hard. It wants under Mama so bad, but I have no idea how to tell if she's interested or about to kill the chick...

 

[ColtHandorf]

If the chick is still favoring the leg, I would not put it in with the siblings and broody hen. Animals are instinctively hard-wired to expend energy on the strongest offspring in order to pass their genes on. Female Eclectus parrots feather faster than their male siblings. In the wild, when their nests are threatened by rising floodwaters, parents will devote all their resources to feeding and raising the female offspring, allowing the males to starve in the hopes that she'll develop and grow fast enough to fledge. Many birds are like that. The hen won't tolerate having a chicks that lags or can't keep up with the rest. She'll leave it behind. And if she does try to mother it, the more independent chicks compared to the weaker one will stress her out and she may actually kill the chick to keep it from drawing the unwanted attention of predators or whatever else her tiny chicken brain tells her to do.