will hen accept younger chicks other than her own as her own??

[critters]

My son and his family's hen has baby chicks pipping as we talk...
ok...my question is will the hen accept a 1-2 day old chick as her own
when her babies are 5-6 days old??

does that make sense? (1) the hen's eggs have started hatching, not
out yet but the eggs are pipping, w/ beaks out....and (2) I have ordered
some sultan chickens due to arrive on 13-14th...so will the hen take
the sultan chicks as her own...can we slip some under her with the
other chicks and everything be alright??

hoping yes...let me know what you think please...

 

[LarryPQ]

If you give her the chicks at night, then she may not notice the difference. After all, chickens can't count.

HOWEVER: chickens CAN see color, so if the new chicks are a different color than the first batch, momma probably won't accept them.

 

[LaynaDon95]

I would think so. As long as you sneak them in at night it should work fine. I wouldn't worry about the color thing, though I have never done this. Most people don't have troubles with it at all. Worse case scenario you end up having to brood them. Shouldn't be too bad.

 

[Ted n Ms]

It depends a lot on the hen. Sometimes they will even take a puppy. Look at my avatar.

 

[kari_dawn]

Ted N Ms,

How on earth did your hen end up with a puppy? That had to be one BIG egg...

 

[LaynaDon95]

hahahahaha that's great!

 

[Illia]

Yep, depends on the hen.

My Ameraucanas and New Hampshire never accepted new chicks, nor their own if you take them away for more than a few hours.

My Sussex and Araucanas will take on chicks even if they never got the eggs they were brooding over to hatch. Even if the chick obviously isn't from their original group, they'll still take 'em in.

 

[LaynaDon95]

Illia, your picture is so pretty. I love your rainbow of eggs.

 

[the1much]

in every case,,, it depends on the bird.. i had a blind roo who thought his kids never in 2 years got any older then 2 weeks,, lol. he was mom to thousands of chicks. she may luv em,, or hete them, it wont take long to tell tho..

 

[critters]

Ted n MS...your avatar is too cute!!

thanks guys for your input! appreciate it!
My daughter-in-law was looking at
my McMurray catalog and had said she liked the sultan chickens...so this
is the younger bird I am talking about...
it's 4:30 on Wednesday afternoon and they have 1 chick that has broke
through and one that tried but died as it was half out..
and my order of cochins and sultans will be here first of next week...
so was hoping her hen could brood her sultan chicken.