"Surrogate" mama?? (goofy silkie question)

[shelleyd2008]

I have a silkie hen that has literally been brooding for 3 months. She has had 2 other hens setting with her off and on, and probably another laying with her as well. She has hatched probably 15 chicks over the course of her brooding, but she does not mother any of them!! The other hens take the chicks, and goofy silkie just keeps on setting.


Obviously, giving her chicks will not work, since she just lets the other hens take them. I doubt that moving her to a spot that doesn't have a nest would work either, since she doesn't really have a nest now. She is just sitting on the ground in her tractor.

Any other ideas on what I can do with this girl?? I don't really have any cage to put her in, so I don't know what else to do?

 

[MidnightChickenLover]

Huh... that's strange... maybe it is because she has eggs under her, and that the others are adopting them... i have never delt with that type of case... strange it is

 

[shelleyd2008]

She doesn't even have any eggs now! All of them have hatched, she just keeps setting in an empty nest.

ETA: The youngest chicks are at least 2 weeks old, probably more like 3 weeks. I wonder if I put her in a pen all by herself and give her my older babies in the house, if that would work? Or would she just hurt them?

 

[insiderart]

Well now that's interesting! Silkies, who can know what they are thinking. Maybe she's gone insane from setting so long.