kcpaull
Chirping
- Jul 6, 2016
- 48
- 40
- 89
A couple of my BO hens went broody about a month ago and after taking all their eggs away, I finally ordered a few Red Sex Link females for them. I ordered 4 and got an extra so I gave 2 to one hen and 3 to the other. All is going well, but I noticed something I hadn't seen before and wondered if anyone else had observed behavior like this. The hen with three chicks is in a rather shallow nest box and her chicks were down this morning eating and drinking from the food and water dispensers I put up last night after slipping them under her. No problem, but they couldn't get back in the nest box so I had to put them back. The other hen is in a deeper nest box and the chicks couldn't get out. I offered her food and water and she shared the food with the chicks. Then, I offered her water and instead of just drinking it, she rubbed her wattles in it and drank, too. At first, I thought she was trying to cool down, but it's only 75 degrees in there, then I noticed the chicks drinking droplets of water off her feathers and wattles. I was wondering if this happens all the time and if that's why drinking nipples and many plastic waterers are red. I know chickens will go for anything red, even an open sore, but I've never seen a hen intentionally get her wattles wet like that before. Not that I have a lot of experience, but I hadn't seen anything about it in what I've read about hens brooding their chicks.
