How do I get a hen to adopt chicks?

[Susan Dye]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=883196165349208

Hope this worked. If so, it's a great example of how determined a broody hen can be to raise "chicks".

 

[-BOGGS-]

that's unreal! I know they get stubborn/determined when they go broody but that's incredible! Thanks for sharing

 

[Susan Dye]

that's unreal! I know they get stubborn/determined when they go broody but that's incredible! Thanks for sharing

I love the way the mother cat waits until the coast is clear before reclaiming her babies. Think she might have been a bit intimidated by the mother hen.

 

[Inaschoepp]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=883196165349208

Hope this worked. If so, it's a great example of how determined a broody hen can be to raise "chicks".

Lol, that is amazing. That ought to give everyone confidence that broody hen/baby chick adoptions can work. I just snuck 3 day old chicks (a salmon faverolle, a blue-laced wyandotte, and a buff orpington) under my ameraucana hen last night and all seem happy and snugly this morning. I locked my other hens out of the coop in the covered run with a makeshift brooder box for laying. Now i am trying to decide when to let new mama with chicks mingle with the other 5 hens. I also have one more rhode island red baby coming in a few days to join the brood. This all seemed rather risky to orchestrate from my first-time prospective, but now that I see this video it all seems less complicated. Thank you.

 

[Rattlerjake]

Not only do you need a broody hen but she needs to have been broody nearly 2 weeks AND the chicks need to be less than 4 or 5 days old.

Not necessarily true. There are breeds where the hens will accept chicks, broody or not (like cochins and silkies), all it requires is that the hen be segregated into a very small cage with some nest material, hang a water and feed cup on the outside (make sure she can access them through the cage. After a few hours she will settle and that evening you put the chicks under her. Wait until around noon before giving her a LITTLE more room so her and the chicks can feed and stretch. Do this in a low light area - just enough light for them to see feed and water. Slowly, over a few days, give them a little more room and a little more light. I do this with chickens and ducks all the time. Never had a silkie that refused any age chick, especially if my hen was a veteran at raising chicks.

 

[Rattlerjake]

WRONG!

 

[Susan Dye]

WRONG!

What works for you?

 

[Rattlerjake]

Go back and see. I wrote two previous comments, you liked at least one of them. The person I responded to with "WRONG" obviously is not a poultry owner, nor did "he" read any of the previous comments by several people.

 

[Susan Dye]

What works for you?

Sorry, when I saw the "Wrong" comment it threw me off.

 

[Rattlerjake]

I don't think it'll work with chicks that are more than a few days old. Broody hens are hormonally and instinctively driven to sit on eggs at first, and then, after long enough, the instinct switches over to getting them ready for chicks. Chicks past the right age don't make the right noises and are too big, so most hens won't accept them, even when they are broody. A non-broody hen won't take them.

WRONG! Today's poultry are domesticated hybrids, many of which have lost their true instinct. Modern poultry very often do things that their wild ancestors wouldn't. I.E, roosters trying to breed anything that walks or crawls, hens laying eggs everyday for years, etc. Many breeds are bred specifically for their broodiness, for their docile nature, egg laying capacity, etc. To say that domestic hens will not do this or that is foolish. I have silkies and cochins that raise a variety of babies (ducklings, goslings, guinea keets, turkey poults, and even quail chicks). When I run my incubators, i remove the hatchlings and immediately give them to hens, sometimes they already have several 'chicks', often a variety. When the young poultry are old enough to be completely on their own I remove them to other pens. I even have a pair of white chinese geese that have a "flock" of mixed youngsters (they have 3 guinea keets, 7 copper moran chicks, 3 half grown silkies, 6 ducklings, and 15 goslings of mixed parentage), it's the craziest thing to see them forage across the front pasture. What is great about the geese as surrogate parents is that they will attack ANYTHING that threatens 'their' babies.