giving chicks to broody mom.....bad idea

[RockyToggRanch]

I have a black australorp hen who hatched 10 chicks. Some from each hen I have. I thought it would be cool to introduce a new breed, so I gave her 3 chicks from TSC. She took them right away and tucked them under her. Then the difference became very apparent. The new chicks did not speak the language and I was forever scooping them up from far away and bringing them back to her. She seemed to not recognize their cries and they were not keeping up with the rest of the chicks. She wasn't mean to them, she just didn't seem to hear them. They are in a brooder now.
Bummer

 

[junebug7334]

sorry.........I guess that happens sometimes. my BO hatched a chick last week and I found it dead under her.....I think because it was a different color! Now she has other eggs under her that I don't know will hatch.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

This hen hatched all the eggs she had and most weren't hers. It's the chicks I gave her that she seems indifferent to. She has not been as good a mom as my sumatra was last spring. She has already starting roosting and leaving the chicks alone in a nest box at night. I won't let her go broody again.