Awwww what a great mama!
Yep it does depend on the hen. I had a young hen sitting on some call duck eggs for a friend of mine, well several hens were sitting on call duck eggs. One of the hens killed her ducklings, the others took to them well, one of the other hens only had one baby so I took that one from her and gave it to another hen who had 3 and gave the other hen 2 eggs. 1 week goes by and the eggs and baby ducklings went back to friends house. The one hen with the 4 ducklings who now had nothing was devistated. I ran to the feed store and got her 3 2 week old mottled cochin bantam chicks, she wouldn't accept them, she tried but like you said they didnt know what a mama hen was. So I brought the babies home thinking I was gonna hand raise em in a brooder in the house but then it dawned on me, the hen whom hatched only one duckling was still broody even tho her eggs were gone but I tried it anyways. Its been a week and the surrogate mama and babies are doing well, however they still don't go under her much but take comfort in laying right next to her.
Yep it does depend on the hen. I had a young hen sitting on some call duck eggs for a friend of mine, well several hens were sitting on call duck eggs. One of the hens killed her ducklings, the others took to them well, one of the other hens only had one baby so I took that one from her and gave it to another hen who had 3 and gave the other hen 2 eggs. 1 week goes by and the eggs and baby ducklings went back to friends house. The one hen with the 4 ducklings who now had nothing was devistated. I ran to the feed store and got her 3 2 week old mottled cochin bantam chicks, she wouldn't accept them, she tried but like you said they didnt know what a mama hen was. So I brought the babies home thinking I was gonna hand raise em in a brooder in the house but then it dawned on me, the hen whom hatched only one duckling was still broody even tho her eggs were gone but I tried it anyways. Its been a week and the surrogate mama and babies are doing well, however they still don't go under her much but take comfort in laying right next to her.
