Will broody hen adopt chicks?

[Fancychooklady]

Your little Cornish, sounds like my little momma. Hang on to her, she is worth her weight in gold!

 

[annanimal]

I have a Dark Cornish hen that will adopt whatever you give her -broody or not! She steals chicks from other hens too.  I gave her 7 Silkies I bought on craigslist and she raised them to maturity.  She's now raising 3 chicks from eggs that another hen gave up on and quit the nest.  I have another hen raising a single chick and the Cornish always tries to steal that other chick too.  In the past I've had excellent luck giving chicks to broodies.  I've put them right under the hens in the middle of the day - no hiding or sneaking them in at night - but if you really wanted to be sure, I'd sneak them in at night when it's totally dark.

Of course I have a rooster that practically adopts babies too.  He feeds them and protects them, from the first day I put them in there with a hen.

Wow!
I want a hen like that!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Will hens accept fosters? Foster eggs?
I thought I would relate my experiences for those interested.

First experience February 2013
I have a Silkie that is an excellent momma. In February she hatched 3 of 5 eggs. All 3 of those hatchlings have thrived and grown into productive hens. But as I wanted more chicks (ie hens) at the time, on the 1st day of their hatching I went to the feed store and got a couple of 1 day old Wyandottes (Silver Laced and Gold Laced). I kept them warm in a box inside the house and then placed them with the Silkie in the broody box that night.

Momma Silkie accepted them with no problem and quickly swept them into her brood. However, I found both chicks dead under momma over the next couple of days. The feed store replaced them and their expert came to the conclusion that they had come from the farm the day before, to my house box, then to the coop at night, and that all those transitions were too much for them. In short they had simply succumbed from too much transition. The store instructed me to take the 3 day old replacement chicks immediately to the hen upon arriving at home, in broad daylight, which I did.

The 3 day old replacements, again a Silver and a Gold Laced Wyandotte, bonded very well with the Silkie, and I thought all would be well...which I think it would have been if not for extenuating circumstances. The Gold lived for 2 weeks but died of what I think must have been some internal abnormality as it was not growing at all (dead next to the water dish). The Silver died from an apparent stupid chick trick by getting caught in a weird corner away from the Momma (I fixed that so it wouldn't happen again).

I then twice more successively tried to replace chicks, one a Silver Laced Wyandotte, then a Chanticleer, with what would be about 1 week to 1 1/2 week old chicks, but none of these heat lamp trained chicks seemed to bond with the Silkie well. Though I tried to keep a close eye, they both died I think due to cold exposure as I found them dead in a corner.

Momma again seemed like a good loving momma, but the later fosters never seemed to catch on of what to do and were confused as the larger (same age but now quickly growing), thriving hatchlings were boisterously darting in and out from momma for warm ups and naps then out again for food, water and scratching. By this time Momma was teaching all the chicks to scratch, but the heat-lamp trained chicks were really confused and just wanted to huddle under Momma because it was cold. However, as Momma was showing scratching lessons, they kept getting kicked out of the way, which is why I think they huddled in a corner and evenutally just died within 2 days of placement. Interestingly, the hatchlings did marvelously well in the winter cold (30 to 32 at night; 40 to 45 at day) and grew quickly running into the cold, days from hatching, not bothered by the cold at all.

Lesson learned: I think it matters a lot as to time of year and age of chicks if you attempt a foster situation. Day old seems to bond really well, or even older, IF all the chicks are the same age and placed together under the hen. Adding chicks to an established brood is harder. I don't think I will try to mix ages of chicks again or add new chicks to an established brood even if the momma hen will accept them since the siblings seem to just overrun them and confuse them. Adding chicks during cold weather should only be done if you also put in a heat lamp so they can warm up if they get overwhelmed by the boisterous siblings.

Second experience June 2013
I recently hatched 2 broods (same batch of eggs) under 2 hens....actually 3 hens....no make that 4.

In May, 3 of my hens went broody (Welsummer; RIR/Welsummer mix; Black Star). I had built a better brooding hutch by now (think rabbit style hutch with 2 large nest boxes, one on each end). I put the Black Star hen in 1 box and the 2 Welsummer half sisters in the opposite box together as they had been trying to sit on each other in the main box to brood infertile eggs. As one sister hen was less dominate, the others kept stealing her eggs, so she gave up (and sulked in the main coop for about 2 more weeks, but never really settling, so I didn't use her).

I re-divided the eggs equally and placed them under the 2 remaining hens with no problem. The Black Star had already been broody for about a week to week and half before I put eggs under her, she gave up after 2 weeks...she hopped the broody pen fence to get to the main flock (amazing feat). I suspicion the Welsummer mix was pestering her for her eggs as I would occasionally find they had swapped nests. (She sulked for another couple of weeks, but never settling again.)

I put the Black Star's eggs under the Welsummer mix immediately to save them, which she accepted without problem. However, that was a lot of eggs for her, so as my Silkie had just showed signs of going broody again, that night I divided out eggs into the other nest again and snatched the Silkie out of the main coop and plunked her down on the eggs. She didn't budge nor bat an eye. She finished them out and hatched them in a week.

We did end up having to put a divider board into the broody hutch so the 2 hens could not interact. Neither ever attacked the others chicks, however, the Welsummer mix being larger and more aggressive would pick on the Silkie. (My poor Silkie gets no respect in my flock).

They simultaneously raised their chicks nesting in the separate boxes (isolated by a divider) but running together in the day pen until at 7 weeks of age when the Welsummer mix simply said "I'm done" and wanted out into the main flock. (She paced back and forth at the broody fence line squawking to be let out.)

The Silkie has taken over and is living harmoniously with the Welsummer's hatchlings...not exactly mothering them, but not being aggressive in any way. They are making their own little flock (and respecting my poor Silkie...for the time being

)

I would like to get some particular breeds next time, so I will try fostering again, but:
1. I will wait for warmer months...May/June is often a frequent brooding time
2. I will only put chicks that are the same age
3. I will attempt to put in chicks less than a week old
4. I will not mix broods...adding new chicks to an existing brood...although warmer weather may prevent casualties like before

My experiences...hope its useful.
Lady of McCamley

 

[Sophia5]

I think she would if she didn't have any chicks of her own

 

[Halloweengirl13]

My cubalaya Hen Sarah has only been broody twice( she's young) the second time she tried to cover too many eggs so none of them ended up hatching. but she was persistent. we ordered some baby chicks from ideal poultry and sat their bin next to hers so she'd hear them and think her eggs had hatched. As soon as it was night I opened both bins and placed the babies one at a time on her back. they just hopped down and snuggled up under her wings and she adjusted herself so they would fit. I did this with a total of 15 chicks ( which is actually about how many eggs she had at this point) so far so good. she seemed almost relieved that her eggs had "hatched" she's been broody for about a month now. She's actually very lucky that she went broody when she did. about the same time we had a raccoon break into the coop and kill half our birds including her sister. we brought her inside nest and all right before it happened. we only had one bird survive being attacked, our red hen Evil Willow.. After the last attack we found her with half her feathers pulled out and her face scratched. She has mostly recovered now still a bit bald but is now back outside with her surviving flock members.

 

[old1953]

With raccoons it's very simple, bury a 36 inch wide cage type heavy wire at least a foot in the ground all the way around the yard, run an electric fence wire around the top of the yard and keep it hot, enclose the top of the yard pen in either plastic netting or chicken wire, make sure the cage wire goes all the way around the coop as well as the yard, tie any spots where your fence wires overlap at spots no more than 4 inches apart, no holes may be left in the coop that don't go straight into the enclosed yard, the coop can have no windows or vents that aren't covered with small cage type wire (no more than 1/2 inch mesh), and the roof must be one solid roof they cannot break through. Also, the sides of the coop should be flat, any type of clapboards or ridged boards are like a runway for raccoons.

Of course, if you want the easier way, get a nasty big dog that lives outside and feed him and put his doghouse near the coop. He'll shortly make the raccoons understand this is NOT their food supply. If acquired as a puppy, such a dog can be raised with the hens and will understand they are part of his "pack".

 

[Michelle G]

This did make me smile, in my experience a 'broody' hen will try to hatch a stone if you give them one! I had half a dozen backyard hens for many years and every year one or other would become broody. We didn't have a cockerel but I would go to the local rare breeds wildfowl trust, get seven eggs (they like odd numbers) and put them in the next box. The broody was so happy she would positively purr and a short while later we were happy to have a range of lovely new chicks.

 

[tankgirl88]

Hello, I have a question for you all!!! I successful got my Buff Orpington to adopt 7 chicks and they have been doing great for almost 3 weeks. The problem is my daughter was out feed them today and accidentally stepped on a baby and broke the poor things neck

She was pretty devastated that she had killed it. So I will be getting a replacement chick. Does anyone know if I can integrate the new baby in with the others ones and have the mother still take it in? Or will she just kill it? The other hens(also Buffs) have also been really nice to all the babies and we have had no issues with them trying to kill any. So I think my hens are pretty easy going. Anyone ever attempted something like this?

 

[TimBaumann]

hi, I might be too late but I'll just go ahead and answer anyways. I would say 3 weeks is already too long. Especially if the new chick is younger than the rest. Even if it's the same age the hen with her chicks will probably kill it.

 

[KerenR]

I know this is an old thread, but it's a great one. I have a question about placing the chicks under the broody hen. Do you actually have her sit on them completely, or just under her wing, or their head sticking out, or what? I just don't want to suffocate them.