Adopted by a broody hen

[Furmom]

Hi everybody!

So, I picked up two new babies on Saturday, a silkie and a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte. My silkie looked really sick with wry neck and just overall in bad shape, I gave her vitamins and did the best I could but unfortunately she passed today. I now have one lone chick. She was screaming unless I held her, understandably she misses her friend! In the mist of all this I emailed the farm I got them from to see if they had another chick right away. While waiting for a response I could not take the heartbreaking sound of distress so I decided to stick the baby under a broody silkie hen I have, who accepted her no problem (in hindsight I should have just waited but it was getting late.) Minutes after doing so I got a response to pick up my new baby tomorrow. My question after all that back story IS...will this cause too much distress to either baby or broody if I take the adopted baby out in the morning and put her with her new sister? I’ve never done this before and am so nervous I don’t want my silkie hen to be stressed. It will only be 12 hours that she is laying on the baby but please let me know your thoughts! Thank you!!!

 

[WhoDatChick]

Give her the other baby too.. go see my thread... Broody Silkie turned adoptive mother...
I gave mine four babies and one died and then a week later replaced the one I lost without any issue..

 

[chicksandchores]

Is the silkie on eggs? If not, I’d probably just adopt both babies to her and call it a day instead of giving her a baby just to take it away again. If you decide to adopt the new one to her, and if she doesn’t seem to want to take it, take the surviving chick from her and put both of them back at the same time.

 

[WhoDatChick]

I think she would be stressed if you take her baby.. she has excepted it as hers so she will be upset..

 

[Furmom]

Is the silkie on eggs? If not, I’d probably just adopt both babies to her and call it a day instead of giving her a baby just to take it away again. If you decide to adopt the new one to her, and if she doesn’t seem to want to take it, take the surviving chick from her and put both of them back at the same time.

Should I worry about my other hens? I’ve never had babies in the coop before, and they all seem to want to lay when my broody hen ha she’s nest, and now that there’s a baby under her I’m nervous. Should I move them out of the coop with broody mom?

 

[chicksandchores]

Should I worry about my other hens? I’ve never had babies in the coop before, and they all seem to want to lay when my broody hen ha she’s nest, and now that there’s a baby under her I’m nervous. Should I move them out of the coop with broody mom?

That’s fully up to personal preference. Once she goes into “mom” mode instead of sitting mode she should keep the babies away from the others just fine. The only casualties I’ve had (I brood and raise in the coop) have been broken eggs (solved be decreasing number of eggs set at once), chilled due to a cold rainy snap and poor drainage, and a chick getting caught in my garden fence (the others literally pecked it to death - I assume because generally loud distress calls alert predators and they wanted it to shut up). When they’re raised with a broody mom in the flock from day one, they integrate with the flock at like two and a half weeks old. She keeps them warm but they’re allowed to eat and range as far as they’re comfortable with the big girls because mom has put any bullies in their place. The intro to the pecking order is much more gradual and I’ve always found them to fully integrate instead of remaining their own small flock for several months.