Hello, another one from NC!

ElizabethH

In the Brooder
8 Years
May 2, 2011
18
0
22
Hi everyone!

I was looking up some info and came across your website. It is amazing how much information is on here! I look forward to getting to know you all.

I am from the mountains of NC. We have lots of chickens, and hopefully more on the way. We have 5 Buff Orpington hens, a splash laced wyandotte rooster, 6 chicks that were a mix of the buff O hens and our rooster, 4 mystery white Tractor Supplly chicks, I have a hen sitting on a dozen Buff Orpinton eggs that I got off of E-Bay, and another hen sitting on a dozen silkie eggs from E-bay. Hopefully some of them will hatch! I really want to get a Buff Orpington rooster, and silkies are so cute!

One of my Buff O hens has been sitting on eggs, and 4 babies hatched today and yesterday. I moved her into a pen by herself, but it is next to the pen where my 5 week old chicks are - The Tractor supply chicks, and the first two "homegrown" chicks which were raised inside with a heat lamp and have never been mothered. Well, this hen started clucking to them and going from the babies in her nest, to the dividing fence where the other chicks were. She kept trying to get to them. Long story short, I put one in with her b/c she was making all sorts of mothery noises at them. She got it back to her nest and is sitting on it with her chicks! Should I just open the divider and let them all in together? Is this strange to anyone but me? I thought surely she would not want them to come too close to her babies, but she really seems to want them all. Will the age difference of the chicks matter? And is 10 too many chicks for her, especially with 6 of them being so big?

Thanks!
Elizabeth
 
Hi from the beach in NC
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Welcome to BYC! It's a lovely place for all your chicken needs and know-hows. As for the mama hen, I would say if she wants them, she can take care of them...
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Welcome from Northern California.
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The motherly instinct is very strong in some hens and they will 'adopt' chicks of different age readily. If she wants to mother them, I say go ahead and let her.
 

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