Who was your best mama this year?

[Jtaranc]

My best mama is/was my bantam porcelain d’uccle. She is tiny and mighty. Went broody and hatched 3 eggs, the chicks were marans not technically hers but oh was she so proud. They’re 10 weeks old now and they still follow mama everywhere and are bigger than she is. She is still teaching them. All my other mamas let their babies go after 4 or 5 weeks.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

So very adorable. Most of my bantam hens mother their chicks for months. It is nice to see.

 

[Altairsky]

Peach is my best mama, she hatched a total of 21 chicks this year, went broody 3 times starting in february.
Her first daughter, Kiwi, went broody at 5 months and is sitting on 5 eggs now!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

This polish hen secretly hatched 15 chicks, here's the chicks after rounding them up, and here's the mom after we finally caught her and reunited her with her chicks. Most of the 15 are under her, and somehow this scrawny polish hen got all 15 under her, and was a great mom.

 

[Greenwolf]

My best mama this year is Goldie. She hatched 6 and fought off a squirrel to save her babies losing two, then she adopted 21 of my brooder chicks that I hatched. She was the reigning queen of the hen house this year!

 

[RubelliteRose]

So very adorable. Most of my bantam hens mother their chicks for months. It is nice to see.

This is good to know. I may need to add some bantam's to my flock! Our broody is a BCM. She is a wonderful mom, but a terrible incubator The first year, she raised 2 chicks. Last year, none of her eggs hatched with most breaking, so we bought a few day old chicks. We thought the other hens were breaking the eggs, so we separated her from the others within the coop. Most eggs broke again and only one chick survived hatching. If she goes broody next year, we will hatch eggs in the incubator and give them to her to raise
Picture of Pippin and her baby Violet

 

[AusHen]

Platinum my splash copper Marans. She went broody for the first time at 4 1/2 years old, hatched out 11 chicks and accepted another 3 at the same time then another a week later

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I have two young* lavender Orpington-based EE hens that are together raising 21 purchased chicks, Black Australorp and black Ameraucana. I can't tell who's who yet. They're ALL BLACK! (What was I thinking?!?) One of the mamas I call DefComOne because she is a fierce defender and protector, the other I call SweetMom because she is a tender, loving nurturer. The chicks hatched July 1 so that makes them nearly 8 weeks old. Interestingly, when these same two hens co-parented two chicks a few months ago as a test run, they weaned them at about three weeks. They'd hatched those chicks themselves. At four weeks, those two chicks (both cockerels) were roosting in the Big House with the flock. The current chicks (the "Thundering Horde") still sleep nights in the outdoor brooder although as you might imagine they are rapidly outgrowing it. In fact, SweetMom sleeps in the Big House although she spends her days trying to herd or keep up with the Horde.

*just turned a year old as they hatched their cockerel chicks.

 

[GregoryPeckory]

Love seeing all these sweet mamas and babes!

Our best mama, for the second year running, is our rescue, Betty White.

Betty came to us as a pullet from a flock that was decimated from a predator, only to then be attacked by a poor introduction to a new flock. She had a broken leg and a head injury, and her poor health turned into a severe case of wry neck. Her recovery took two months, during which time she lived in a small box supported by towels and had to be hand fed and watered, all while living with her head upside down.

Fast forward to this year and she is the broodiest b*tch you ever did meet. This lady would raise 3 broods a year if we let her. Also...she's never been mated with (our roosters ignore her) so she always sits on infertile eggs. When it is time for them to "hatch", we sneak in two babies from the local hatchery at night. She is an overprotective, fierce, dedicated mama.

(This picture cracks me up. Parenthood...amirite?)

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I have two young* lavender Orpington-based EE hens that are together raising 21 purchased chicks, Black Australorp and black Ameraucana. I can't tell who's who yet. They're ALL BLACK! (What was I thinking?!?) One of the mamas I call DefComOne because she is a fierce defender and protector, the other I call SweetMom because she is a tender, loving nurturer. The chicks hatched July 1 so that makes them nearly 8 weeks old. Interestingly, when these same two hens co-parented two chicks a few months ago as a test run, they weaned them at about three weeks. They'd hatched those chicks themselves. At four weeks, those two chicks (both cockerels) were roosting in the Big House with the flock. The current chicks (the "Thundering Horde") still sleep nights in the outdoor brooder although as you might imagine they are rapidly outgrowing it. In fact, SweetMom sleeps in the Big House although she spends her days trying to herd or keep up with the Horde.

*just turned a year old as they hatched their cockerel chicks.

Update: last night for the first time, both mamas slept in the Big House. The Thundering Horde slept in the brooder by themselves.