Momma hen chasing off her young chicks

[Phoenix1]

We don't have a rooster and one of our hens became broody. We really needed to replenish our flock, so we slipped in some of my friends fertilized eggs in place of some of the unfertilized clutch eggs she was sitting on. We marked them to know which ones to keep an eye on. After only four of the seven fertilized eggs hatched, we noticed our local feed store had just brought in new chicks (pullets), so we decided to get two chicks from the store to put under momma hen. The age of the original chicks and the ones we bought and put under her were only a few days difference, so we hoped they would be a natural fit. We introduced the new chicks by putting them under her with the new hatchlings, and after acknowledging by lightly pecking the chicks, she never pecked them again and accepted them as her own. She treated them with care and she turned out to be a great mom, very protective of her brood and always showing them the way to food etc. She never denied or discriminated against the two store bought chicks and treated them like the rest of the brood. Fast forward almost two months, and we just noticed that the momma hen is suddenly chasing off the two young pullets that we purchased. Why all of a sudden would she start doing this? Is this a natural pecking order thing, should we separate the two pullets from the rest of the flock? The only thing we can think of is the two pullets are a darker color (Barred Rocks) than the other red colored Wyandotte chicks. Sort of sad and concerning to watch them being rejected and treated like this all of a sudden.

 

[lazy gardener]

How is she responding to the other chicks? It's natural for a hen to wean her chicks, (kick them to the curb) when they are around 4 - 6 weeks old. As long as your coop has plenty of room, and the 2 pullets can get out of her way and out of her sight, and you have multiple feeding stations available, I'd just keep a watchful eye. I have found that chickens can be prejudiced, and will sometimes not play well with birds of a different color.

 

[Phoenix1]

She doesn't do this with the other chicks, that's what's so puzzling. She's chasing away the two Barreds but not the others. If fact, we just noticed today that the other chicks are starting to mimic the momma hens behavior towards the Barreds, so we're going to separate them tonight since we have two co-joined coops that can be sealed off from each other. Maybe this will cool their behavior. The two young Barreds have already been mixing with our older flock and have established themselves without much incident, so hopefully they'll fit in (fingers crossed) without much kerfuffle.

 

[Abriana]

I had a hen, a bantam called Bantam, who hatched out two Americauna Columbian Rocks who were yellow with some brown and looked pretty much the same, and then a Columbain Rock chick who was all yellow. The first week or two the mama was fine and then one day she just starting attacking the chick. I thought it was because she looked different, but I'm still not sure why she did it even to this day. Anyway, I took the Columbian Rock chick and put her in my basement. Then I read online to take them all and reunite them the next day. So it did take them, it was sad because they were peeping for their mom. I took them back to the coop in the morning and she was fine. I watched them for a while to make sure, and I never had a problem with it again. The Columbian Rock turned out to be a rooster, the oldest was a hen, and the other got taken by a hawk before i knew if it was hen or rooster, so I'm not sure if it was because he was a rooster or because he was yellow and not brown. Anyway, it worked for me and i highly suggest you try it.

 

[Abriana]

Or she might be finished with them, which is usually around six weeks.

 

[chicken moma]

my black momma today has chased away all her chicks, she has 5, one looks like a roo, but they were all with her till this morning. now she is going around the yard finding them and chasing them off. biting on them. they have their tail feathers, they look to be about 4 months? the 2 new red chicks are still around not mixing in with the wild, staying to themselves, and still not roosting at night? I have a cat carrier Im thinking about trying to lock them init at dusk haha

 

[chickengeorgeto]

To a chicken, mothers' love is tough love

 

[Snoozeys]

I have 12 cross breds that have been deserted by their mother ... she is looking broody so pretty much expected !!!