- Sep 17, 2012
- 415
- 6
- 93
Recently I had a broody with seven eggs under her. Of the seven, five eventually did hatch. At first, only three hatched and then came a fourth. But the fourth was only a few hours old when momma hen decided to show the chicks around. The other three were about two days old, but the fourth was much too young. He kept getting stepped on and all he wanted was warmth. I saved him and put him in my bator. I went to look at the remaining three eggs and one of them was pipped. So I took the remaining eggs and put them in the bator as well. Overnight, the fifth one hatched. The next night, I snuck the chicks under their mother hoping she would accept them. In the morning I checked, and the chicks were nowhere to be seen. During this whole story, I forgot to mention that my leghorn had just gone broody the same week. I decided to check under her... and... POOF, the two missing chicks were under her! She had only been broody for about a week, maybe less. She took good care of the two chicks, but she never lets me get near them since she is the most unfriendly chicken I have. Anyways, one day I came home and one of her chicks was missing... I still have no idea where he went but I can only assume that he is dead. So she was left with one chick. I went on vacation, and I when I came back, the leghorn was sitting on six eggs along with the chick. I figured they were just taking a break together; coincidentally over some eggs. Everyday I check on her, and every day she sits on those eggs. The little chick just wanders around the coop aimlessly. And once when I was feeding the flock bread, he came out on his own to get some bread, maybe he was just really hungry from staying with momma on the eggs. I was going to remove him and put him with my six incubator chicks since it seems that my leghorn has gone broody again and is neglecting her chick, but when I tried to pick him up, she came over and attacked me. So, to some extent, it appears that she knows that it is her chick. She lets it wander wherever it wants, but if I get near it, she goes bezerk. I am worried that the chick will be starved to death or die of thirst if it stays with its momma because she just sits on the nest all day, paying no mind to him unless I try to pick him up. So my question is: should I remove him and put him with my incubator chicks? Please help! Thanks.
