I think I messed up! Advice needed!

[centrarchid]

Sight and smell not all that important with chick ID in chickens. It is all about sound. Follow what I originally suggested keeping the chicks she is rejecting very close to her where she can at least hear them and they can hear her. Chicks need to imprint on her as well. I have been putting my chicks in a minnow trap with food and water. Then wedge the trap right next to hen sitting on nest or in a box. Listen for clucking of hen and chicks to synchronize. At end of day remove chicks from trap and place them under her for the night. Check on them first thing as lights come on. To test, pull chicks in question out about 6 inches from her and see if she clucks to call them back with them retreating to be under her belly without being pecked.

I have a broody hen with two 36-hour old chicks and some 5-day old chicks in brooder that could be used to demonstrate for later similar issues. Hen and her chicks are white while brooder chicks are black.

 

[WhiteWaterChickens]

Sight and smell not all that important with chick ID in chickens. It is all about sound. Follow what I originally suggested keeping the chicks she is rejecting very close to her where she can at least hear them and they can hear her. Chicks need to imprint on her as well. I have been putting my chicks in a minnow trap with food and water. Then wedge the trap right next to hen sitting on nest or in a box. Listen for clucking of hen and chicks to synchronize. At end of day remove chicks from trap and place them under her for the night. Check on them first thing as lights come on. To test, pull chicks in question out about 6 inches from her and see if she clucks to call them back with them retreating to be under her belly without being pecked.

I have a broody hen with two 36-hour old chicks and some 5-day old chicks in brooder that could be used to demonstrate for later similar issues. Hen and her chicks are white while brooder chicks are black.

Oh I definitely get it now, thank you, do I keep her chicks under her or all 7 in the smaller place beside her?

 

[Naser]

I would take all of them from her and break her broodiness and never let her hatch again, a good broody hen will accept any chick.

 

[centrarchid]

Oh I definitely get it now, thank you, do I keep her chicks under her or all 7 in the smaller place beside her?

Those she accepts now leave them with her.

 

[centrarchid]

I would take all of them from her and break her broodiness and never let her hatch again, a good broody hen will accept any chick.

In my experience, a good broody hen will attack, if not dispatch, chicks she does not recognize when they cannot get away. Those same broody hens could be running with a dozen of their own chicks at the time and raise their own chicks without attacking them in a similar manner.

There is science that can be applied to interactions between all chicken life stages.

 

[Naser]

In my experience, a good broody hen will attack, if not dispatch, chicks she does not recognize when they cannot get away. Those same broody hens could be running with a dozen of their own chicks at the time and raise their own chicks without attacking them in a similar manner.

There is science that can be applied to interactions between all chicken life stages.

Good is open to definition, a broody hen that rejects the chicks I put under her is not good for me, a broody hen that nests on other hens eggs is good for the species but not good for herself as she does not spread her own DNA "under current breeding practices".

 

[centrarchid]

Good is open to definition, a broody hen that rejects the chicks I put under her is not good for me, a broody hen that nest on other hens eggs is good for the species but not good for herself as she does not spread her own DNA "under current breeding practices".

Your system has potential to discount good hens and does not take into consideration basic biological principles that impact success rates of hens used to nurture chicks not their own. You be flying blind when it comes to having hens adopt chicks they did not hatch.

 

[Naser]

Your system has potential to discount good hens and does not take into consideration basic biological principles that impact success rates of hens used to nurture chicks not their own. You be flying blind when it comes to having hens adopt chicks they did not hatch.

I prefer to put chicks under the heat plate, that works better in my setup, when a hen gets broody I might put few chicks under her, for some reason I haven't come across a hen rejecting chicks, but I will never let a hen to hatch if she rejects chicks once.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Chickens don't really have a great sense of smell in my experience. I got a hen to take 4 additional chicks with her own four, but what I did differently than you it seems is that I did it slowly, one at a time over a day. To her it probably seemed like they were just hatching from (nonexistant) eggs. I would let them cheep before I put them in so she heard them first and then saw them like she would with an egg that is hatching.

 

[WhiteWaterChickens]

Chickens don't really have a great sense of smell in my experience. I got a hen to take 4 additional chicks with her own four, but what I did differently than you it seems is that I did it slowly, one at a time over a day. To her it probably seemed like they were just hatching from (nonexistant) eggs. I would let them cheep before I put them in so she heard them first and then saw them like she would with an egg that is hatching.

Oh that would have been smart of me, I was worried about the chicks getting older and then not imprinting on her also so I thought it was too time sensitive.
I do feel awful because I can hardly blame her to not want to take chicks that are not her own BUT she a was sitting on 7 eggs, genetically none of her own and she now has 7 chicks, I foolishly thought it was not that big of a stretch, and introduced between her own chicks hatching.

I’ve learned my lesson I certainly won’t try anything like this again... well with this broody lol.