I have 4 chicks, about 2.5 weeks old now. Today they went outside for the second time, first was last night for a few minutes. I had them in a portable child play pen thing, basically an octagon fence that you pop up where you want it, bare earth beneath. I set it right next to the 3 laying hens I have so they could start to get to know each other but with a barrier. One of my red sex-links was the most interested in them by far. At first I thought it might be aggression, or asserting herself in the pecking order, as she is the head honcho among the other adults. But then I noticed that she was all nestled down into the dirt, puffed up & had her wing held out & she was panting (the spot was in the sun and she'd been there for a while, so I'm sure she was hot and thirsty). It almost seemed like she was waiting for the chicks to come cuddle under her wing, and didn't want to leave them alone to go eat and drink like the other adults were doing. Any ideas? Does she like them? Does she hate them? I'm pretty new to chicken behavior, but have lots of experience with other animals... this one had me baffled.
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