hen brooding other hens?

[neferset]

I'd keep that one rather than eat her. At the very least you have some one who might look after started chicks a bit. We have a Buff Orpington hen who did just that this spring. We brought her home at the same time we got a group of three young Rhode Island Reds. One night, I saw that she had jumped the fence and was picking around the yard. It was right before a storm. I went out and grabbed her and put her in the cage with the babies. Every night she roosted on the cage and waited for me to put her in it. Finally, my guy decided the young ones were old enough to put out for the day. She kept them with her and mommy clucked to them and everything.

Buffy was very young when she did that and only started laying in September. I'm hoping next year she will go broody.

 

[Ariel301]

Yeah, I'm leaning towards letting her stay around a bit longer at least. It's funny that she's brooding the adult bantams and not the 6 week old pullets! I'm really thinking she did raise the older ones at least. They still follow her around like she's their mom!

 

[neferset]

It's possible. I understand it's rare for leghorns to go broody, but anything can happen. We have several OEGB hens who go broody. Last spring, our little black one sat on her own eggs, other OEGB hens' eggs and our Australorp's eggs. She turned out to be our nicest Mom. As they grew up, it was amusing to see her trying to put her wings around the three comparatively huge standard roosters.