corviidae
Songster
I never heard of hens adopting older chicks successfully. The moment our jersey giant knew of the chicks (we let them see the chicks when they were around 2-3 weeks old briefly), she started going into brood. We only just integrated them at 8 weeks (which worked splendidly after they had a sectioned off part of the run for a few weeks) and once we put them together, Sithis was...unhappy, but not mean. Our rhodie red and one of our sussexes were a little mean, but they've gotten over it.
Once we put the chicks in to sleep with the adults after a week or so of sharing a run, I came in last night to find one of the chicks almost buried underneath Sithis in a nesting box. Ive never seen her go into brood after having her for a couple of years. Of all the chickens I expected to get along, it wasn't quite what I expected. I'm not sure if shes adopted her, per se, but shes never slept anywhere else other than the roost or with the chicks until now. Before bed she was doing the broody growling and puffing up before she went in.
Has anyone had experiences with their hens doing this with older pullets/chicks?
Picture of Bandit and a low render photo of all our chickens for tax
Once we put the chicks in to sleep with the adults after a week or so of sharing a run, I came in last night to find one of the chicks almost buried underneath Sithis in a nesting box. Ive never seen her go into brood after having her for a couple of years. Of all the chickens I expected to get along, it wasn't quite what I expected. I'm not sure if shes adopted her, per se, but shes never slept anywhere else other than the roost or with the chicks until now. Before bed she was doing the broody growling and puffing up before she went in.
Has anyone had experiences with their hens doing this with older pullets/chicks?
Picture of Bandit and a low render photo of all our chickens for tax
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