Co-parenting???

Missbc

Songster
Jun 19, 2017
114
209
128
Pacific Northwest
So... my broody hens received their chicks on Friday night. The little leghorn received one chick (a buff Orpington) and the australorp received two red/blue Wyandotte chicks.

Each hen had a space in the coop with food/water and a barrier between each other and the flock. They were maybe 5’ away from each other.

On Sunday morning, the australorp decided she was very much ready to go out in the coop with her chicks. I found her pacing back and forth along the barrier with her chicks in tow. I spent wayyyy too much time in the coop yesterday watching the integration.

When I opened the hen house this morning, I found the leghorn pacing back and forth. After a brief spat between the mamas (like, attacking with feet and grabbing necks fighting), the two mamas spent the entire day sitting side by side with the three chicks randomly crawling under whatever hen they felt like crawling under. Is this typical? They seem fine with the arrangement and I’m certainly not going to try to cram the proper chick under the proper hen. Anything I should be concerned about?
 

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