Chicken101-07
Songster
- Aug 18, 2019
- 292
- 195
- 108
I have 4 hens,last year I had 2 go broody at the same time,one was a great mom,the other one not so much,(not sure if it was my fault,didn't have chick feed and had to go buy some the day the chicks were hatching)the bad mom started attacking the little chicks,killed 1 before I gave them food,killed another 1 even though there was food in the feeder,stepped on or suffocated 2 more, not sure what happened the first night,next day she took out the eggs that were still hatching for some reason,I gave them to the other broody who was hatching her own chicks,she accepted them and the eggs hatched.I gave a second chance to bad mom and left her with 3 eggs that were starting to hatch,(I made a mess I know,didn't stop the other hens from laying in the broody nest so I still had chicks hatching 4 days apart.),to make the story short,the chicks did hatch,bad mom killed 2 and I removed the other chick from her,the other hen ended up caring for 19 chicks(all made it except 2 who fell victims to a snake).fast forward to today,I have another hen gone broody,she has been sitting for 1.5 weeks,now I have another hen trying to go broody and of course it's bad mom ,only reason I didn't end up selling her is because the chicks that hatch from her are beautiful,I'm sure it's her because she is the only black hen I own,my question is,should I give her a second chance or do some hens just make some terrible moms?she was a first timer broody.sorry for the long text.