Hen rejected grey chick not yellow ones

[janetwinzler]

Hen hatched two yellow chicks and two days later 1 grey chick. She pecked the grey chick and we thought she might kill her. We took the grey chick out and tried to reintroduce her several times but she pecks it. The grey chick is in its own box and is eating and drinking seems ok. They are now 5 days old.
Can we take mother hen and put in the yard and try to get the babys to bond? If we do this can mom be reintroduced? When should we take mom away from chicks? I am afraid the grey one will be killed by the others?

 

[sourland]

She was probably bonded to the yellow chicks by the time the gray chick hatched and regards it as a 'stranger'. Is she a first time mom ? I did have one RIR who hatched RIR chicks her first brood and was an excellent mother. Second brood included some Australorps - she killed all of them. Trying to reintroduce the chick to the hen is most likely not going to go well.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had something similar happen once. When I put some eggs under a broody hen I also started some in my incubator. The incubator eggs hatched right on time but the broody hen hatched on day 19. All her chicks were red but a couple of the incubator chicks were black along with several reds. I think she imprinted on her red chicks and somehow knew that the black chicks were not hers. This same hen had hatched and raised both black and red chicks before and raised them all without a problem. I think it was the imprinting on this specific hatch.

The hen did not try to kill the black chicks, just pecked them to drive them away. I had to raise them myself, the hen was not going to accept them.

Since chicks usually don't do well when raised by themselves if I were you I'd take them all away from the hen and commit to raising them myself. I really prefer the broody hen to raise them for me but I think you will be better off raising them yourself.

Good luck. It's probably just rotten luck. If the grey had been one of the first two and the last one yellow it would probably have been OK.

 

[chickens really]

She was probably bonded to the yellow chicks by the time the gray chick hatched and regards it as a 'stranger'. Is she a first time mom ? I did have one RIR who hatched RIR chicks her first brood and was an excellent mother. Second brood included some Australorps - she killed all of them. Trying to reintroduce the chick to the hen is most likely not going to go well.

 

[janetwinzler]

Thank you for the good information. We tried putting the three chicks together in a tote tonight but the two yellow checks were really stressed and the mother hen was having a fit. Our little grey chick did not seem to know what to do with the other two chicks so we decided to wait a bit. We put the two yellow chicks back with mom for now. We hold the grey chick in a fuzzy cloth and it seems to be happy when we hold it. We will see how it goes. Thanks for all your good comments. Janet

 

[sylviethecochin]

Chickens are racist, especially if there's only one of a kind, and the rest are another kind.

Animals in general can be pretty racist. I know a cattle farmer who decided to get a Hereford bull for his Angus cows, and he bought two little bulls—one Angus, one Hereford. Same age, same gender. About a week later, he came out to the water trough to find the little Hereford bull had been kicked to death.

 

[janetwinzler]

I went to the feed store today and the clerk had a good idea. She said chickens are use to being in a herd. If we do not introduce our chick to the herd they will not accept her ever..She will be an outcast forever and we will have to take care of her. Since our chick is only 5 days old, she suggested we put the chick in the pen with the mom an two chicks only have her in a separate cage. This way the mom hen can not attack her and she will not be lonely. She said try to introduce one yellow chick into the grey chicks cage and then the other. Maybe they will accept her into the herd and she wont be lonely. She said the chicks can die from depression and loneliness.