We know broody hens. How about a nanny hen?

[azygous]

Tonight, I pulled the low portable perch over to the spot where Su-su and the chicks have been sleeping. Two chicks looked it over, and said, why not? Su-su wasn't having any part of it, and two chicks joined her on the floor.

Hey. It's a start.

 

[ValerieJ]

Sounds like an introduction to the littles anyway. But they are sure attached to mama.

 

[azygous]

Sounds like an introduction to the littles anyway. But they are sure attached to mama.

These chicks are not only clingy to Su-su, but also to me. I go into their run to do something, like yesterday fixing their Igloo water nipples, and within a couple minutes, I'm "wearing" a couple of chicks on my back, and one will be crowding onto my knees where they make a sort of "lap".

The fourth will be glued to Su-su like a toddler that insists on hanging onto mama's pant leg.

 

[aart]

So we've got a couple of 'nanny-hens', eh?

 

[azygous]

Success! Su-su and her little brood are roosting! Last night for the first time, I stuck Su-su up on the perch and had a talk with her. I convinced her the perch was in her best interest and that if she would roost, the chicks would.

Last night two chicks stayed on the perch with Su-su. Tonight I repeated the process, and Su-su and one chick remained. I finished up some chores, and came back and snagged the two chicks off the floor and one chick off the window ledge and got all of them to stay.

 

[aart]

Can Su-su get up there by herself?

 

[azygous]

No @aart , it's too high. Her limit of jumping is about a foot, and that takes all the concentration she can muster. But she can jump down just fine, although her "stick" is rather shaky. I've had to put her on her perch at night for years. Reminder that she's ten years old. What she's doing with these chicks is exhausting, but she's obviously in hen heaven these days with these chicks almost constantly Velcroed to her.

 

[ValerieJ]

I just love Su Su and wish one of my Broodie’s would have taken an interest in my incubator chicks. The only one interested in them is a lonely little cockerel who can see but not touch them. They talk through the fence. But the chicks love having their own space in the coop and run. Happiest chicks ever. I got that idea from you and Aart, I think.

Edited to fix typos. I'm not very good at it on my phone.

 

[azygous]

Minor update: Su-su now is first to enter the coop at dusk, waits patiently for me to lift her up onto the perch, and then she growls her orders to the chicks to join her, which they readily obey.

I generally hang around outside listening for disruptions which are very few. Night before a chick lost her grip on the perch and fell off, and by default she was heading for the old sleeping corner on the floor. I rescued her and put her back on the perch where she remained.

Despite their tardiness at getting around to roosting, this has been the easiest chicks ever to perch train, no doubt thanks to Su-su being in completely control of the brood.

I'm learning broody vocabulary. It's more complex than just tid-bitting. It seems the broody "growl" is more than hormonally based irritability. There's the basic growl that calls the chicks to her. Then there's the excitable growl when I show her the meal worms. That growl is combined with rapid tidbitting and the growl sort of ends in a brief scream.

Chicken-speak as a foreign language. I can't speak it, but I have no trouble understanding it.

 

[ValerieJ]

Minor update: Su-su now is first to enter the coop at dusk, waits patiently for me to lift her up onto the perch, and then she growls her orders to the chicks to join her, which they readily obey.

I generally hang around outside listening for disruptions which are very few. Night before a chick lost her grip on the perch and fell off, and by default she was heading for the old sleeping corner on the floor. I rescued her and put her back on the perch where she remained.

Despite their tardiness at getting around to roosting, this has been the easiest chicks ever to perch train, no doubt thanks to Su-su being in completely control of the brood.

I'm learning broody vocabulary. It's more complex than just tid-bitting. It seems the broody "growl" is more than hormonally based irritability. There's the basic growl that calls the chicks to her. Then there's the excitable growl when I show her the meal worms. That growl is combined with rapid tidbitting and the growl sort of ends in a brief scream.

Chicken-speak as a foreign language. I can't speak it, but I have no trouble understanding it.

Broodies are just the most fun! Su-su is sure taking good care of those babies. And yes, they have a whole new vocabulary when it comes to their chicks, or in Su-su's case, their adopted chicks.

I think when the time comes, my chicks will go up on the roost without any hesitation. There is a wooden bar in front of the nesting boxes in their area of the coop, and lately they have been hopping up on that to roost at night. They are only a month old, but I can't wait to see how they do in the flock. My two month olds are integrated and roosting.