My First Broody!

Pics
The chicks are 2 weeks old now.

Silkie x Easter Egger
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Silkie x Silver Laced Wyandotte
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Silkie x Rhode Island Red
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Silkie x Novagen
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Our rooster, Klinger, who is probably father to all these chicks, Prudence, Helen and all seven chicks. Helen’s are three weeks old now and it’s already apparent the black chick and the white chick are boys and the yellow a girl. Prudence’s chicks are two weeks old today and are still too young to tell. Helen once tried to roost already and left her chicks on the floor, but ultimately returned to them. She is showing less inclination to have them with her always, so they take advantage of Prudence’s motherliness and follow her instead.
 
Sometimes they do funny things.
Indeed. For 2.5 hours this morning, Helen made no effort to find or assist her chicks, who made no effort to find her or stay with one another. They just moved around with the flock. I threw cantaloupe rinds out a little while ago as treats and that brought the four of them back together and Helen resumed mothering them. Mother Nature is messy, not cut and dry like we expect, I suppose.
 
This is actually very interesting to watch. I heard chicks complaining loudly by the back door. Since our coop is on the direct opposite side of the house and the chickens ordinarily hang out in front of the house, I went to investigate. I found Prudence with all seven chicks; hers were happy, Helen's were not. Helen's female chick was the one complaining. After watching for a few minutes, the female hiked off to find Helen. Her brothers moved closer to Prudence and took advantage of her foraging for them. I found the female chick on the floor of the run, begging Helen to come down from her perch out of the rain. She did not while I was watching. Of course I'm concerned about their safety running around on their own while so small, my human-raised chicks seldom choose to leave the run before six weeks, but it's more or less the same risk as before. The chicks are with a mother or with the whole flock and are as safe as they are ever going to be free ranging.
 
Molly decided to stop being mama to her chickies. She roosted with the main flock and left her babies behind last night. This surprised me because she mothered her last batch of chicks for 15 weeks. She mothered this batch for only 6 weeks. Thinking about it, it sort of makes sense. She hatched her last babies at the end of September and so it was the middle of October when they were this age and the nights were cold, so they still needed her. So, we moved the babies in with my Banty pullets and moved the Lavender guineas, EEs and some of the older Cornish chicks out into the main pen.
 

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