Have the chicks been accepted or not? What will "Momma" do?

[Junebugsin]

On Tuesday afternoon, we got our shipment of day-old chicks, eight of them. We took them out, inspected them, watered and fed them, and put them in their "bedroom" (a small portable coop) in the garage. My idea at the time was to let them grow for several weeks/months, and then slowly introduce them to our flock the way I had done before, by putting them in a cat condo inside the coop where older chickens could get to know and get accustomed to the new chickens

Anyway, I woke up Wednesday morning and thought .... well, why not just have our broody hen take care of them? I did bunches of research on how best to introduce the babies and then last night (still Wednesday) I took the broody hen (whose name is Lunch [my husband named her]) and placed her in the bedroom with the chicks. She ignored them and they ignored her. We waited for her to settle down and then one-by-one, under cover of darkness, and many minutes apart, we placed chicks underneath her. We started this process at about 8:30 p.m. A couple of times we would get six of the babies under her and then she would stand up and move away. We would wait a little while for her to settle some more and then start again. Finally at 12:30, all eight chicks were snuggled under her and she was content.

I went back out at 1:10, and she had again stood up and moved, but it looked like a couple of the chicks had found their way to her because I could only see six of them huddled together.

This morning we went out to see how things were going only to find her perched on a roosting bar above the chicks, and the chicks running around like little two-year-olds eating and drinking and being adorable. Lunch was just intently watching them, but didn't seem to know what to make of them.

By way of background, before we got the little chicks we had seven chickens, six hens and an accidental rooster. Lunch is the "Alpha" chicken, if that's an appropriate term, and as she was broody, I thought she would be a perfect candidate for an adoption.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that yesterday afternoon, my daughters and I had put Lunch with the babies for a little while just to see how she would react to them. She was quite curious about them, but didn't scream out: "Hey, babies, come to your Momma" and the babies stayed huddled in the back corner napping. ... Until Lunch decided to have a little bit to eat. As soon as she started pecking at the chick food, a few of the babies, one at a time, came running over to say hi to her. At first she was startled, but she otherwise ignored them, until three came running over at the same time and one little brave (stupid) chick pecked her beak. She then pecked it back and it ran back to the corner. The good news is that (in my opinion) she did not peck at the chick very hard, but just enough to tell it not to do that again, I guess. After that Lunch was just pacing back and forth in front of the little coop door trying to get out. So I picked her up and put her back with the big birds. A little while later, though, she was frantically running around in their run with her wings spread out and all fluffed up as if she were looking for her babies! She even bowled over -- or under actually -- one of her sisters. I'm trying to figure out how to describe the running around part, properly ... she was taking little steps, was low to the ground, and her wings were not all the way open but spread a little bit and almost touching the ground. It was this behavior that made me decide to try the introductions again at night.

Anyway, I don't know what to think of Lunch roosting now. What does this mean? Will she accept the chicks as her own? Will she ignore them? Will she injure them? Should I leave her in there, or take her out? She was still broody last night. After all the running around yesterday afternoon, for about an hour I guess it was, she went back into the nesting box she had taken over. And when I took her out last night to try the introductions again, she fluffed and made that little growl noise.

I'm confused!!! Any information, opinions you may have is appreciated!

Jenn

 

[Dawns Funy Farm]

i would have put the chicks under her at night in her nest where she was brooding not move her she would have maybe accepted them in her own nest as having hatched overnight rather than being but under her in a new area, you might give it another try in her old nest whereshe is setting . good luck

 

[Junebugsin]

I'm afraid that if I put them under her in the nesting box and one of the chicks gets away or if she leaves them, the other hens won't take too kindly to them. I'm also afraid of what the rooster will do. He's VERY protective of his girls and will attack anything/anyone he feels may be a danger. We have to walk around our yard with big sticks to ward him off when they're roaming the yard since he's attacked us so many times. I'd help him meet his maker except that he's also protected the girls from real predators on more than one occasion. And we live in a predator-filled area.

Jenn

 

[cluckety]

I'm interested in answers too as I have often thought of doing the same thing. How would a rooster react to chicks suddenly appearing? Should the mom be separated from the other chickens? Is there any difficulty because "mom" wasn't able to communicate with her babies while they were in the eggs?

With regard to the situation above, is the momma talking with the chicks? Does it make a difference if she was or not?

Thanks

 

[Junebugsin]

UPDATE! I just wanted to let everyone know that I have taken Lunch out of the brooder. She wasn't taking to the chicks. She stayed on the roosting pole all day and wouldn't go near the food or water if the chicks were anywhere near. And if one of the chicks got to close to her, she would peck at it. I decided I would rather be safe than sorry with regard to the chicks and put Lunch back with the big chickens.

The funny thing is that as soon as I let her out of the brooder, she fluffed up and ran "broody-style" back to the coop.

We'll see how things go . . . maybe if she continues to be broody, we'll allow her to sit on some eggs in a few weeks.

Jenn

 

[newmarch2014]

Keep in mind you will be introducing them as new strange chicks and it could be a long drawn out process. I have had my hens from last year exposed to this years chicks for weeks and weeks with a fence between and eventually could have the 2 sweeter hens in with the pullets and cockerel with only an occasional pecking order peck. However, I had to take out the head hen and her cohort because the head hen was intent on killing the cockerel and her cohort was slightly less deadly. Mind you my new ones are almost 4 mos old and the cockerel is a Brahma so he is HUGE compared to the head hen but he is timid and not yet reached his maturity so he defers to the hens entirely. Each day I would put the 2 bullies in the run in a dog crate to give them exposure without danger but I put up fence in the hen house to keep them separated, since at roosting time even my sweet tolerant hens want to beat up the babies for wanting to roost. I was able to put the hen that is lower in the pecking order back in the run a couple days ago but the head hen is still grabbing great beakfulls of feathers at every opportunity and going at him full force when he gets too close or complacent with beaks and claws ablazing. I am leaving her in the crate in the run every afternoon when I get home from work and letting them roam together for about an hour with me right there to grab her when she gets too ornery. At least so far she leaves the smaller Easter Eggers alone (though they are scared enough to keep well away and not tempt her) but she still has a chip on her shoulder for that cockerel. I am actually going to revamp the roosts in my hen house to be at opposite side of the coop this weekend instead of 2 continuous ones, I think it will give them enough space to feel comfortable since right now I have to put up a trash can to separate the littles from the big hens or the big hens go over and peck the littles off the roost.