sneaking in new chicks?

[Leah S]

Was talking to a neighbor of mine and she said that she would sneak in new chicks to the coop during the night? Theory is that when the older girls wake in the AM they will think that the new additions have always been there and thus the introduction of new birds into the flock is easier. has anyone heard of that, or does it? She swears by it.

 

[HEChicken]

Chickens are not that bright but they do know who is in their flock and what position each bird has in the pecking order. They would definitely recognize new birds as interlopers regardless of whether they were awake or asleep when they were added to the coop.

I suspect what your neighbor is talking about is putting chicks under a broody hen in the middle of the night. This is a method used sometimes to get a hen to accept chicks as her own after she has been sitting on eggs for awhile. If the chicks are added during the night while she is sleeping, in the morning she will think the eggs hatched and that these are her own chicks.

However just adding chicks to a coop when you don't have a broody mama to protect them could be a recipe for disaster next morning when the older hens wake up.