Hen rejects eggs and accepts 4-week-old chicks instead

[Debbie292d]

Backstory:

A silkie hen went broody. (No surprise there.) My broody jail was full, so I left her there. She's in an outside pen with a hutch at night, along with another hen and a rooster.

Our weather turned from the 50s to 70°F, so I put four 4-week-old chicks in that pen. It's pretty roomy, and I gave them two food/water stations so the little ones could always get food. I gave the broody hen 6 eggs to sit on, to keep her there, as now she became the "heater" for the hutch, as 4-week-old silkies are a little young to be outdoors at night without heat.

Fast forward about 10 days. Tonight I checked in on them and saw her eggs were all kicked out and the four chicks were somewhat under her. They are too big to all fit.

I ran the eggs to the house and candled. I could see movement in four of them so put all six in the incubator that was already running.

Never in my life have I heard or seen such a thing! The last thing I ever intended to happen was that this hen would want to be a mother to them. They were incubator hatched, so I guess there's nothing wrong with them experiencing a little hen-loving.

 

[Yardfulla poopers]

Love this!

 

[Debbie292d]

Mom and her “chicks” are still a thing. I didn’t think it would last lol.

 

[FrostRanger]

Animals are going to do whatever they want, and sometimes it results awesome situations like this

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Some hens do that. I had a Japanese hen that was awesome at taking foster chicks, even ones that were feathered out and just needed a bit of extra heat and guiding at night. At one point she had like a dozen teenage cochin bantams

 

[Debbie292d]

Some hens do that. I had a Japanese hen that was awesome at taking foster chicks, even ones that were feathered out and just needed a bit of extra heat and guiding at night. At one point she had like a dozen teenage cochin bantams

But did she throw her eggs she'd been sitting on out of the nest? That's the second part of this weirdness!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

But did she throw her eggs she'd been sitting on out of the nest? That's the second part of this weirdness!

I never gave her eggs apart from once. She was too nervous to ever fully set the whole 21 days.

 

[Debbie292d]

The other hen in that pen, Petra, went broody now. I stole the three eggs from her and tossed. I wonder if she's jealous and wants to do this now? I mean, all those two hens know is one was sitting on eggs, then suddenly had chicks a month old!

I don't have any old enough to put out with her. I'll have three in a week or two, I may try. They'd be about 4 weeks then. I might be pushing my luck.

 

[MROO]

The other hen in that pen, Petra, went broody now. I stole the three eggs from her and tossed. I wonder if she's jealous and wants to do this now? I mean, all those two hens know is one was sitting on eggs, then suddenly had chicks a month old!

I don't have any old enough to put out with her. I'll have three in a week or two, I may try. They'd be about 4 weeks then. I might be pushing my luck.

Try it, but since you've already pulled eggs, don't wait too long. You may want to let her set new eggs (or fake ones - got any golf balls?) for just a day or two. Then you can swap out eggs for chiacks while she's setting. I reach under with a peep and pull out and egg in the same motion. Mama never sees the egg leaving.
I've recently pulled eggs and put three almost-one-week-old peeps under a Nankin hen. She shuffled a bit, but accepted them all. A few days later, I took a chance and added a one-day old that had hatched in my ... ummm ... foundation garments. Some more shuffling, and she's now the proud mother of four hard-feathered youngsters, including the late-bloomer. That particular baby's name is BB, the politically correct nickname for her real name, BooBee!

 

[Debbie292d]

Try it, but since you've already pulled eggs, don't wait too long. You may want to let her set new eggs (or fake ones - got any golf balls?) for just a day or two. Then you can swap out eggs for chiacks while she's setting. I reach under with a peep and pull out and egg in the same motion. Mama never sees the egg leaving.
I've recently pulled eggs and put three almost-one-week-old peeps under a Nankin hen. She shuffled a bit, but accepted them all. A few days later, I took a chance and added a one-day old that had hatched in my ... ummm ... foundation garments. Some more shuffling, and she's now the proud mother of four hard-feathered youngsters, including the late-bloomer. That particular baby's name is BB, the politically correct nickname for her real name, BooBee!

I never thought of trying it now. My only intention that started this was putting some month-old chicks out in a grow-out pen that had three adults in it, one being broody. Thus, that's what's on my mind, what age can they live out there. With 3 adult chickens in their hutch, they stay warm at night so even if they were shunned, they'd be fine.

These three next to go outside are just two weeks old, so too small if this doesn't work.