Do Mama Hens Regurgitate for their Young?

[NottinghamChicks]

I just witness my hen regurgitating for her babies for the first time. Is this normal? I know many species of birds do this but do chickens?? I'm miffed

 

[BrattishTaz]

No. They teach the chicks to eat by pecking at food. I don't know what you hen was doing.

 

[NottinghamChicks]

I have been watching her teaching them to pick at the starter and at pieces of bread so I didn't think this was normal. Very odd.

I wonder if she is okay? She seems fine in every other way.

 

[BrattishTaz]

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Check her crop to make sure it is not impacted.

 

[NottinghamChicks]

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Check her crop to make sure it is not impacted.

Good idea, I will check her this morning in a bit.

 

[BrattishTaz]

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Check her crop to make sure it is not impacted.

Good idea, I will check her this morning in a bit.

Try to catch her just before she gets up and starts eating. Her crop should be empty.

 

[NottinghamChicks]

Took her out of her brooder box and felt her crop. Seems fine, not hard and by no means full. Perhaps I have the first regurgitating mother hen

She is behaving very normal and seems quite content. I glad that I didn't find anything wrong.

 

[speckledhen]

No, she probably has just drank some water and pressed on her crop when she bent over to peck for the chicks. They don't regurgitate to feed the chicks.

 

[NottinghamChicks]

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That is logical, thanks for your input!

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I have seen my broodies do this. Like Speckledhen said, it generally happens the first couple days after a hatch and when momma's crop is full with food and water. When she bends down, a small amount of "crop juice" will leak out and she will feed it to her chicks.