One egg, Two Hens, Who will be the mommy? New Pics!

[Jacob42]

I have a Silkie who has gone broody again. We took her eggs from her for several weeks but we finally gave in after awhile. Now our polish hen decided to go broody while babysittingwhile silkie was eating and dusting. Problems now is the Polish hen will not allow the silkie to have her egg back. They are now both in the same box waiting for the egg to hatch. I tried to remove the egg and the silkie and put them in another box but she left the egg and went back to her own box. So I put the egg back in the box with them and they seem to be content like that. The thing I am wondering is are they gonna get along when the chick hatches and who will mother it? Has anyone else had this happen?

 

[emys]

The polish will be the mommy and will guard the chick, trying not to let the Silkie near. The chick could get hurt...

 

[Breac]

While two or more hens are capable of the communal raising of chicks, it sounds like this will not be the case with your birds. Since they are fighting at this stage, it is unlikely (in fact, I think it'll be downright impossible) that your Polish hen will bury the hatchet and let the Silkie raise the chick with her. They will most likely fight each other and possibly injure the chick. If I were you, I'd separate the Polish and the egg away from the Silkie and let the Polish hen raise the chick by herself.

 

[Jacob42]

I dont understand why I would let the polish raise the chick if she was not the first to go broody. The silkie is the one who has been doing all the work here, the polish just wants to finish the job already started. They do not physically fight over it they both stay together in the nesting box. The silkie has already hatched eggs before and is a great mommy. The polish are very rarely broody.

 

[emys]

I would remove one of the hens. The chances are that chick will be hurt otherwise. Doesn't matter which one, but, if it were me, I'd let the Silkie raise the Silkie chick. Tell the Polish better luck next time, or give her her own egg somewhere else.

 

[KellyHM]

It's up to you if you want to take the risk. My girls (Silkies, Cochins, and a random Cuckoo Marans) co-brood all the time and raise their chicks together without any problems. My Silkies actually raise them in the pen with all the other Silkies, including the roo, and everyone just takes care of them. I even have a turkey and a Cochin who are currently co-raising chicks...they both sat on the nest, the chicks follow the Cochin around, and the turkey stands guard. It just depends on your chickens' temperaments.

 

[Jacob42]

The funniest thing about this whole mess is they just want to share the same box and be broody, they keep trying to go to different boxes and sit on other eggs, I have to keep a close eye on them with the one egg they have or else they are gonna wind up killing this baby before it hatches. It is due to hatch on Tuesday, but we will see what happens and if I can get them to stay on THIS egg long enough!