Any luck getting new mom to adopt?

[adcgroup]

Thanks for all the help and advice! They seem to be getting along well.

 

[LaynaDon95]

Thanks for giving me hope for next weekend! If any of the chicks hatching right now survive, I'll be doing the same thing a week from now. (I hope I will be.

)

 

[adcgroup]

My brother has always transplanted chicks this way. He's moved them from one mama to another and more. It's just that he doesn't get as attached to his chickens as we do. Survival of the fittest is his motto. Therefore, I take all of his practices with a grain of salt...

I expect my chickens to earn their keep too, but my girls just enjoy them all so much that we have a little more personal investment in them. So, we proceed with a bit more caution than he does when dealing with them.

I'm sure you'll do just fine. It was a night and day difference (no pun intended) between trying to introduce the chick yesterday vs. doing it last night. I let it get real dark and gave her a couple of hours to get really settled. I held the chick long enough until it settled down its peeping. I went in real quiet and softly slipped the chick under the hen. The chick wiggled out of my hand and peeped softly a time or two but that was it. The hen raised her head (and probably her hackles a bit), but it was so dark, she just made a couple of inquisitive clucks and stayed put. I checked through the night and early this morning and she stuck to her spot like she was welded there.

I've heard that new chicks and hens "imprint", but the sage advice for introducing new chickens to a flock is to do it at night so the other chickens "smell" them all night and they're not so "new" in the morning. I guess the latter is more of what worked out in this case even though is was just a chick.

 

[LaynaDon95]

I'm really glad your little "family" is doing well. It gives me much hope. I get more attached than I ought to my chickens as well, but the ugly stage they go through when they are babies helps that a little. It's the babies that really get me, so I can totally understand your caution putting 1 under a potentially violent hen. If that had gone badly that would have been devastating. They are really cute and I bet you're having a good time watching them. I know I'm looking forward to watching my duck raise her babies.