Mamma Hen rejecting some of her chicks...advice needed

[yellowsnapdrago]

I placed 4 chicks under Speckles, our mamma hen, yesterday and she accepted them and today she is aggressively pecking 2 of them away from her. She was an excellent mamma with her adopted chicks the 1st time around, so not sure what's up this time.

The 2 she has rejected are the chicks my granddaughters picked out and they are yellow and light tan. The other 2 are black with a bit of yellow We have brooder area set up under or poop board, could this be causing her too much stress...or maybe I didn't let her "sit on eggs" long enough.

I removed the 2 chicks and was thinking about slipping them under her again this evening after they've all bedded down. Are there any other suggestions besides setting up a separate brooder are for the poor rejected babies?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I placed 4 chicks under Speckles, our mamma hen, yesterday and she accepted them and today she is aggressively pecking 2 of them away from her. She was an excellent mamma with her adopted chicks the 1st time around, so not sure what's up this time.

The 2 she has rejected are the chicks my granddaughters picked out and they are yellow and light tan. The other 2 are black with a bit of yellow We have brooder area set up under or poop board, could this be causing her too much stress...or maybe I didn't let her "sit on eggs" long enough.

I removed the 2 chicks and was thinking about slipping them under her again this evening after they've all bedded down. Are there any other suggestions besides setting up a separate brooder are for the poor rejected babies?

You could try a little food coloring on all 4 chicks in the hope of completely blowing the old girl's mind. The worst that could happen is that she'll reject all 4 biddies.

 

[yellowsnapdrago]

That's an idea, I could make the others darker. Any ideas why a broody hen rejects chicks?

 

[donrae]

How long was she broody?

 

[yellowsnapdrago]

She's been broody for about a week, She went broody about 3 weeks ago and I broke her of it and after about a week, I decided to put some chicks under her since we don't have any fertile eggs.

 

[centrarchid]

Having hens foster chicks is not something I would do until learning about normal breeding cycle.

This looks like an imprinting issue. OP, look up imprinting, especially as it relates to chickens. Compare process to what you did.


With current chicks, feed them heavily four times daily and otherwise keep them in dark with hen for a couple of days. You will be forcing imprinting.

 

[donrae]

My only thought is she wasn't broody long enough, Yes, I know chickens can't count, and I have no scientific evidence to back my theory, but I believe there are hormonal changes that occur during those 3 weeks of brooding that encourage the momma to properly mother chicks. Besides that, I'd go with whatever centrarchid says, he's dealt with tons more broodies that I ever have.

 

[yellowsnapdrago]

Donrae, that was my thought also. It wasn't the best timing, but the chicks needed a new home and so I went for it. Next time I'll think twice.

Centrarchid, I followed your advice. I did a bit of reading about imprinting and found it very interesting. The mama hen would call to the chicks when they started peeping, and would let them under her, but would peck at them occasionally when she saw them and they weren't peeping. She also appeared agitated at the time, maybe from the attention of the roosters

I made her area as dark as possible and she seems to have calmed down and I can hear her talking to the chicks. Tomorrow I plan to remove the covering and see how shes doing. If it fails, I'll just make a brooder area in the coop for the chicks.

I'm always learning new things about chickens, I just hate it when my lack of knowledge causes such distress to them.

 

[Peeps61]

We all learn from trial and error/success. Many of us were new when we started on this website, and learn by reading and asking questions just as you are doing. The main point is that you are trying to get it right so the chicks/chickens don't suffer unnecessary distress.

 

[yellowsnapdrago]

Thanks Peeps. I added 5 more day old chicks to the group and left her in the dark for 2 days. She started out accepting the two rejected chicks and then started pecking at them again. I decided to remover her from the brooder area and take care of them myself instead. For 2 days she stayed next to the brooder area, talking to them and trying to get in. Yesterday I put her back in with the chicks and everything seems to be fine. I'm still keeping a watch to see if she begins to reject the 2 chicks again. Will see how it goes, I can always go back to using the brooder area without here if she rejects them again.