Broody raising meat chicks

[bigz1983]

This is the story of a broody hen my wife and I had raise 5 Cornish cross meat chicks.
We had a large size barred Cochin go broody at the beginning of last May.
Her eggs ended up dying 3 days before hatch because she didn't get back on her nest.
She got confused about a partition I made out of boards to protect her from another hen that was mean to her.
Ended up jumping over the partition in the coop to take a break outside, got confused about the partition and went to a empty nest box when I was gone to work.
The embryos/chicks died in the eggs.
So rather than give her fresh eggs(which would be hard on her to go through another 21 days again and she was getting weak)we decided to put meat chicks from a Family farm and home store under her at night.
She started taking care of them as best as she could but she was so weak she could barely stand.
After 3 days of eating/drinking/nutrition drench treatment she regained some strength and I took the wood partition down.
She did a good job protecting them from the other chickens.
Now the meat chicks are getting real big about 4 weeks old and she doesn't cover them at night.
I guess she figures they are weaned.
She goes to the roost and the meat chicks sit on the floor they can't get to the roost.
From my experience meat chicks don't need a mother hen to keep them warm for long.
We will be butchering them in about 4 weeks.
That's our story.

 

[3KillerBs]

How remarkable!

 

[trudyg]

My broody was sitting on unfertile eggs, so I put some cornish cross chicks under her and pulled the eggs. Her friend would sit with her but not on eggs. They co-parented these chicks. It was so cute, each could go eat, etc, and the other would watch them. When one didn't get in the coop one night, one of the hens was in and the other out with the stray. Then, suddenly, at 5 weeks, they were done. Up on the roost, chicks on the floor (spotty feathering, but it's hot here even at night). They would still run interference for them during the day, running off other hens from treats so babies could eat them. They did a great job, only one was injured probably got stepped on, but only a bit underweight. Butchered them yesterday. All in all, good experience. The worst was the mess of cornish cross chicks, huddled at the feeders and pooping constantly.