Chester is a Buff Orp rooster, 4 weeks old. When he was 2 weeks I accidently knocked a video game console into the chick box, on top of him. When I picked him out, his leg swung free in the socket, and I assumed it was shattered. I was thisclose to putting him down, but put it off until morning as he didnt seem to be in great pain. I went to show the leg to dh in the morning, and it didnt swing free anymore!! So I kept him in the infirmary box with a miniature (really tiny) cochin bantam (nothing wrong with bantam, but Chester was lonely). Since Chester couldnt move around so well, the little black cochin would cuddle up with him and there wasn't much he could do about it. Time went on, and he was trying to put weight on his leg, but his toes were all curled up by them, so I taped on a cardboard boot. It stayed on for about 4 days before I cut it off. During this time, 3 silkies day olds were added to the box. Thats when I started to notice something unusual, and soooo cute. They all think Chester is their mother. There would be Chester laying in the middle of his box with 4 little chicks under his wings lmao. There are now 2 more couple day old chicks in there, blrws. ALL of them think he is MOM. It is so cute to see him lift up his wing to tuck a day old under it. I've heard of roosters being surrogate mothers but this is too funny. He seems to love the attention. Hope this doesnt ruin his masculinity in the future hahaha. Just thought I'd share that story, maybe I'll get a picture tomorrow, got to go to work now.
