Mama hen unhappy with new chicks

[tjbaker70]

I have a hen who only hatched 1 of the 5 eggs she had collected (none were her own). I was really worried about the chick being alone when the mama and chick are ready to integrate with the flock. The chick is three days old today so I went and bought some chicks similarly aged chicks (< one week old) to put with mama and chick. Mama was NOT happy about this. Currently she is asleep with all the chicks under her but l had to sneak half of them under her. She is pecking the new chicks but her chick just stays right up next to her and she acts like she's defending it from the other little chicks.

Should I just move these new chicks to their own brooder? Should I give it a day to see if she comes around? If she's already pecking does that mean she'll not accept them? A couple of the chicks are now clearly terrified of mama hen but at least two seem to have fewer issues and got up under her wings without my help and without being pecked. I don't want her to kill the new chicks and she isn't pecking them very hard (no blood being drawn or anything) and sometimes she seems to ignore them. Any experiences with something similar would be great to hear about.

 

[azygous]

The pecking is the way a broody hen communicates to her chicks what she expects of them. Yes, I've mistaken the broody pecking at her chicks as aggression at first. But if you watch very carefully, she's not doing it hard enough to hurt. Occasionally a chick will let out a loud chirp when she does this, but a chick will usually get the message and scoot under the broody as its mama commands. If she didn't have this way of letting her chicks know that she expects them to do what she tells them, they would wander off and die.

As the chicks develop, they need disciplining. The broody will give a chick that gets out of line a quick peck on the back, and once the chicks begin demonstrating independence, other senior hens in the flock will contribute to the discipline. If the broody hasn't approved this, she will let these hens know that they are out of line by flying at them in a fury only a broody can display.

Yes, it's true some broodies turn bad. Maybe they lack the "mom" gene. I know there are some human mothers like this. You will know the difference if you were to see it.

 

[tjbaker70]

Update: First, mama hen slept fine with all the chicks and so I hoped all would then be well. Nope. This morning when all the babies got up, mama hen was clearly accepting the two Dominiques alongside her hatched chick (Dominique-Silkie mix, so the three look similar). The two Buff Orpingtons and two Speckled Sussex, however, she went after with a vengeance this morning. She was puffed up, wings expanded in front of the Dominiques and her own hatched chick and she was pecking so hard at the others and making horrible sounds. She was clearly defending what she now saw as her three chicks and the food from the four other chicks. The other four chicks were crying and running. We quickly set up an old brooder box we had with a mama hen heating pad, food, and water and moved the four she seems to have rejected. We'll leave mama with the three (her one + 2 that she accepted) and brood the others ourselves. She is very calm now. Any pecking at the two new Dominiques is quite gentle, like she is still a little uncertain but ok with them in general. I've not seen her peck at the chick she hatched even once.
Also, this mama isn't the mother of the egg she hatched. She is a Bantam Easter Egger and she had five eggs all from different hens in my flock. The one that hatched was a Dominique-Silkie. My roo is a black Silkie so the chick she hatched is black like the Dominiques. I'm thinking that to her, the chicks should look like the one she hatched. The Buffs and Sussex definitely don't so maybe that threw her off.

 

[chickens really]

Separate the ones she won't accept..

 

[azygous]

You did well to observe and remove the chicks the hen rejected. It's not difficult to tell the difference between rejection and acceptance. The difference in the kind of pecking is night and day.

If you can, I would set up the MHP brooder within proximity to the other chicks only with a safety barrier so they can see one another but be safe from the broody. This way, all your chicks will be a unit and you won't be facing integration issues later. Once the broody weans her brood, you can then put all the chicks together.

 

[tjbaker70]

You did well to observe and remove the chicks the hen rejected. It's not difficult to tell the difference between rejection and acceptance. The difference in the kind of pecking is night and day.

If you can, I would set up the MHP brooder within proximity to the other chicks only with a safety barrier so they can see one another but be safe from the broody. This way, all your chicks will be a unit and you won't be facing integration issues later. Once the broody weans her brood, you can then put all the chicks together.

Our breeders are large clear plastic tubes with meshed tops so I put them end to end. For now, I've covered the broody hen and her chicks because the other chicks sat at the edge area and cried and cried for her. I'm sure they prefer to sleep under her but will have to learn to love the MHP. Once mama has settled and the other chicks are sleeping under the MHP, I'll remove the towel cover so they can all see each other. I suspect that within a couple days everyone will be living happily, beit separate.

 

[yellowherb]

My experience with introducing new chicks to a broody mom is that broody knows the colors of her chicks. I put a chipmunk color, black, and a white chick with a broody who hatched white chicks. Immediately the chipmunk was dispatched, no chance of me stopping it, and the black was treated harshly and quickly removed. She accepted the white chick even though it was a tiny bantam while she's standard.

Another broody let her own white chicks die and adopted slightly older chicks I had running around the coop. She adopted speckled Sussex, black silkie and bantam brahma, which look nothing like her own hatched chicks did. And those chicks were 2 weeks old, running around the coop and over her while she brooded her eggs.

so I guess each hen is different on what they will accept. But I do believe, as you figured out, that you are more likely to have successful introduction of new chicks if they are the same color and introduced at night after mom is relaxed.

 

[Ebony Rose]

You did well to observe and remove the chicks the hen rejected. It's not difficult to tell the difference between rejection and acceptance. The difference in the kind of pecking is night and day.

If you can, I would set up the MHP brooder within proximity to the other chicks only with a safety barrier so they can see one another but be safe from the broody. This way, all your chicks will be a unit and you won't be facing integration issues later. Once the broody weans her brood, you can then put all the chicks together.

x2

Also, your chick flock will more easily integrate with any other adult chickens you have due to strength in numbers.

 

[Chickassan]

Anytime iv'e ever put odd colored chicks under a broody I cheated and put a colored light in the coop for a few days.
Can't peck the oddball if everybody is purple.

 

[sourland]

All broody hens are different. Most bond with their chicks within 24 hours of hatch and regard all others as intruders. Some will accept new chicks for several days. I once had a hen who raised RIR chicks her first clutch. Second brood contained some black chicks. Before I knew what was happening she had killed all of the black chicks - her memory bank only accepted red chicks. @Chickassan, that's a great idea. This old guy learned something today.