This is kind of a long story but I'll try to keep it short.
- We had a broody hen.
- She didn't have good luck with her hatch (not her fault).
- We bought five babies & snuck them under her at night, two keets and three chicks.
- She didn't adopt any of them, kept trying to peck them all, so we separated them. Trial visits tried and failed over the course of the next few days.
- One week later, she is still obsessing over them through the screen door to the brooder room. In a trial visit today, she showed herself willing to take the chicks...called them in, let them eat next to her, etc. She still wants to kill the keets, though.
So, I'm looking for what you guys would think is the best idea:
Give her the chicks and brood the keets seperately?
Continue to keep the chicks and keets together so they can be introduced to the flock together later, letting her obsession just wear itself out?
Try to teach the hen English so I can explain nicely what I want her to do?
Other?
For the record,
- She is eating and drinking.
- I don't really have a place I can hide them where she can't see or hear them (to help her get over it).
- I do have a flock of adult guineas as well as chickens, but unfortunately no broody guineas right now.
Looking for ideas here......
- We had a broody hen.
- She didn't have good luck with her hatch (not her fault).
- We bought five babies & snuck them under her at night, two keets and three chicks.
- She didn't adopt any of them, kept trying to peck them all, so we separated them. Trial visits tried and failed over the course of the next few days.
- One week later, she is still obsessing over them through the screen door to the brooder room. In a trial visit today, she showed herself willing to take the chicks...called them in, let them eat next to her, etc. She still wants to kill the keets, though.
So, I'm looking for what you guys would think is the best idea:
Give her the chicks and brood the keets seperately?
Continue to keep the chicks and keets together so they can be introduced to the flock together later, letting her obsession just wear itself out?
Try to teach the hen English so I can explain nicely what I want her to do?
Other?
For the record,
- She is eating and drinking.
- I don't really have a place I can hide them where she can't see or hear them (to help her get over it).
- I do have a flock of adult guineas as well as chickens, but unfortunately no broody guineas right now.
Looking for ideas here......
