Mothers being done at 3-4 weeks old?

[Kanga77510]

My hen hatched a clutch of 5 babies around July 17-19th, so the babies are about three weeks old now. Chip has been showing signs of being done with them. She's been nipping at one of the little cockeral's comb and not doing the normal mother calling and such. She started laying again, and tonight she perched up with the rest of the girls and left her babies on the ground. The babies are starting to feather out (ugly chick stage) so they don't really need her for warmth, I guess.

Is there any hope of getting mom to go back to her babies? I'm able to keep the babies away from the big girls and our rooster, but I was really hoping Chip would do it all.

She also did this with our last batch, she was really good up to a month. Then she let the other mother take over, and that hen died.

 

[HEChicken]

It is quite variable how long they are interested in mothering. My first broody kept her batch with her for 15 weeks. More recently, I had a Sultan brood and hatch two chicks and in this case it was the chicks who separated from Mama Hen. When they were about 3-4 weeks old they started going off without her and she would call and call but they ignored her. They had access to an area she didn't because they were so small and after they had ignored her for a day or two she gave up on them and started sleeping on the roost. She even started to lay again. When they were 5 weeks old, we were visited by a fox, and I noticed that following that trauma, the chicks wanted to be with Mama again. She took them back and for the next few days they were with her constantly. I guess they thought they were all grown up but the fox was scary enough they realized they needed Mama after all.

If your hen is laying, I would say she is pretty much done being a Mama for this time around.