what age do mums usually leave their chicks

[danalister]

Hi got 12 lovely little chicks they are now only 6 weeks old and the mum has left them already, it seems a bit soon they are still so small ? What age do mums usually leave their chicks?

 

[DTchickens]

All depends on the individual hens, some I've seen will leave as soon as they get good feathers (especially so for production birds I've seen). Game hens i've seen raise them until 5-6 months old, and one jungle fowl hen i got from ideal raised chicks until they were bigger than she was, and she would still except day olds if you gave her them!

 

[chixie]

I am 37 and my chicks are 6 weeks and iI still haven't left them... oohhhh you mean momma hens... I am sorry I don't know that answer..lol

 

[ams3651]

mine were about the same, i set them up with a box with an opening only large enough for them to get into so they had a safe place to go away from the older girls, they can be a bit bossy, and put their food inside so the larger ones didnt get it. They will be fine if mama taught them well.

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

My buff orpington mother left the chicks when they were three and a half weeks old.


Of course, she was a baby herself -- she hatched her clutch just one day after she turned six MONTHS old!


I was really surprised at how fast after dropping her first egg that she went broody on me. And I was surprised that she sat on the clutch religiously for the three week period, and that she took such good care of them during the hatching process and for the three weeks after. She didn't have a mother herself -- we got her from a feed store -- so it's not like she had a role model to follow.

 

[Amethyste]

The babies are 15 weeks old now, and still being babied

Sleeping every night tucked under wings (of both Momma and Auntie Mercedes), called to come to dinner, all clustered around Momma Esther.....the list goes on lol

I really think she needs to cut the apron strings !! I know they will be babied for a long while yet...she has no intention of letting them be grownup birdies

 

[flakey chick]

Quote:
That's about like my mutt EE. She went broody just 1 month after starting to lay and we got her from a hatchery. She sat on wooden eggs for 3 weeks, then I shoved a couple day-olds under her butt. It was so sweet. She really fussed them, breaking their small crumbles into teeny tiny crumbles they would eat from her beak. Then one day about 3 weeks old, they were suddenly the bottom of the pecking order.

Actually what was a little weird is mama chased the girl (OEGB) away first and still doted on #1 Son. Maybe it was a gender thing? Maybe it was because #1 son was also an EE mutt.