One of my Buff Orps went broody. I was ecstatic and hoping for a nice roo as I had recently lost half the flock, including my beloved roo Big Bird, to a predator. It was borderline for the eggs to still be fertile (he was my only roo) but I crossed my fingers. About day 19, one of my Speckled Sussex thought she'd go broody, too - on the Orp's eggs! Mother (the Sussex) is top hen, so the Orp ended up sitting flat like road kill chicken just outside the nest most of the time. One chick hatched, but BOTH hens are still setting the remaining eggs! I let them fight it out for several days, and finally went and got some fertile eggs from a friend today to put underneath them. Can't disappoint that kind of dedication. So we have two hens and a tiny chick who thinks it has two interchangable mothers, all in a nest box together. I can't wait to see what happens. Will NoName Orp decide to get a life and take her chick out of the coop? (It's been almost a week since the one chick hatched). Will Mother decide to give her attention to the new eggs only, and give up the chick? Will they communally raise the chick, never allowing it to leave the coop until the new eggs hatch? It's unbelieveably cute to go out to the coop and give treats to both hens and watch that little chick run from one beak to the other as both hens mumble and cluck about come and get it, here's a goodie.
I had a jersey giant and a gold laced wyandotte co-mother a pair of chicks. The GLW's eggs never hatched, but when the Giant hatched the chicks the GLW decided to take them, but the JG wouldn't give them up. Poor little things were so confused!
