Can mother hen carry her chick? Funny situation...

[Happy Day Farm]

We have a New Hampshire Red that has hatched a tiny Japanese Bantam chick. She loves her baby and is very protective. We moved them back into the coop with a divider from the other chickens and kept them in a large cage for a week. We are on week 2 now so we went in and removed the cage. They now have their own area. My husband just went back to check on them and they were both in a nesting box (the divider is still up). The nesting box is 30 inches off the floor of the coop.

How on earth did the baby get up there? Can mother hens carry their babies? There is no way this chick could jump up 30 inches. It is no taller than my pinky.

 

[crazyhen]

I don't know about carrying them :

but mine often has a chick on her back when she walks about.

Gloria Jean

 

[Happy Day Farm]

She's pretty thin. Do you think it could have jumped up on her back and she jumped into the box? That would sure be something to see. It had to get up there somehow.

Thanks!

 

[Dingleberry]

oh hen aerobics~! sign me up

 

[MMPoultryFarms]

Quote:

 

[crtrlovr]

I've seen my mama hens carry their babies under their wings. They'll squat down, spread the wings over the babies, then draw the wings close to their body and stand up. Voila! Babies get carried to safety while snuggling close to Mom.

 

[racuda]

I think a 2 week old Japanese chick could fly up 30 inches. The very small, light chicks such as OEGB and Serama can fly like little birds.

 

[wongfam]

I was wondering about this too. I have 2 hens, each with chicks the same age (3 days old now) They were put into the same area. We have two places in the same coop we could put them in but put them together. It was more enclosed so the other hens could look but not touch easily. The hens fought. So we separated them. The hen we moved was in a separate area, but other chickens could push their way in, not quite as protected. This morning they are all together again. To do it the Mama we moved and her 3 chicks had to go over a net barrier 10 inches high.There is netting hung from it, and fastened at the bottom so they can't go under and walls on the rest of the enclosure, so they can't go around; only over. Mama could do it easily, but the chicks are only days old. They can't fly or hop that high! I was wondering how they did it. This may be how.
P.S. whatever their quarrel was, the 2 mamas made up.