Mama adopts older babies?

[Roslyn]

It's the weirdest thing! We introduced our new bantam hen to our four week old babies today and get this, she adopted them! They all seem to huddle under her and she watches over them like a very protective mommy. Four weeks! I had a hard time believing it myself; but they've all accepted her as their new mama.

Here she is:

 

[Judy]

I had a broody do the same thing a month or two ago. I was amazed. The chicks had been in a pen inside the coop for a month, which I used for a brooder, and I'd already turned the heat lamp off as they avoided it even at night. She went broody after I got the chicks and sat on nothing for a couple of weeks in a nest right next to the pen -- then one day she left the nest and started clucking and pacing up and down the sides of the pen (which is made of chicken wire.) I couldn't believe she thought they were hers, but she sure was acting like it, so I opened the pen -- and sure enough, she started mothering them, and stayed at it for a month or so.