Stephh0701
Songster
My family was eating lunch yesterday on a restaurant porch and saw a couple little chicks chirping and hollering. We were there about an hr and half and they never stopped and no mommy ever came to collect them. As we walked past them on our way out one started following me and when I turned to him he let me pick him up. I grabbed the other and started looking for mommy and my son came across a huge amount of adult chicken feathers. I'm assuming the mommy got grabbed by a cat or something. We ended up taking the babies home, and they don't look or act more than a day old (yeaterday). They still have the egg tooth and looked very awkward trying to peck around (like they didnt quite know how to do it proficiently. I had to show them how to eat and drink. Anyway, all night they cheaped and chirped and cried... so my husband got the idea to put our silkie hen with them. I was a bit worried as shes only about 14 weeks and I didnt know if she would peck them (although shes bottom of the pecking order and I've never seen her peck I wasnt sure how'd she be around little ones). He put her with them and she looked really uncomfortable but the chicks ran under her and she just stood there. I sat with them about 30 minutes to make sure she didnt peck at them and she eventually sat on them and they've been nice and quite and happy and as of this afternoon new mama hen pecks at anyone who goes near those babies. She seems great with them but I'm wondering of I should worry since shes so young and never laid any eggs or has been with chicks like this. I'm also not 100% sure shes a she considering silkies are notoriously hard to sex, but she seems to be based off of her appearance... at least to my untrained eye