Momma hen abandons her chicks at night

[Mom2Chicken]

An update for all who were kind enough to comment on this thread...

After two nights of Chick Protective Services coming in and taking away her chicks, Momma Hen had had enough. Not only was she in earshot of her chicks last night at bedtime, but she was actually in the coop with them!

I think she is finally honing her maternal instincts.

 

[birdlover2]

An update for all who were kind enough to comment on this thread...

After two nights of Chick Protective Services coming in and taking away her chicks, Momma Hen had had enough. Not only was she in earshot of her chicks last night at bedtime, but she was actually in the coop with them!

I think she is finally honing her maternal instincts.

Awesome!

 

[Mom2Chicken]

An update in case someone has a similar problem in the future:

• The momma hen continued to be flaky about coming back at night, so we brought the chicks inside at night until they were almost 5 weeks old. We would have stopped sooner, but we were getting cold winds at night.
• The momma hen actually abandoned them fully around this time anyway.
• Since there are several chicks, we knew they could stay together for warmth.
• They are now almost 6 weeks old and have been doing fine other than some aggression issues with one of them.