Will Momma Hens adopte more chicks?

[chicky baby]

My black silkie Hens are co- parenting four chicks they hatched and one chick my granddaughter brought home from school. They adopted this extra white chick, and take care of it as their own. Its so wonderful to watch the mommies raising these chicks.
Now my question, next week I will be receiving three jersey giant chicks. Is it possible that the mommies would adopt them too? Is it worth a try slipping the new babies in with them?

 

[Judy]

Maybe they will. Silkies do seem to love being mommas, and yours have already shown openness to such things. Good luck!

 

[NosiphoChooks]

How old are the chicks that they currently have? I have added more babies when they are up to a week old and that has worked. Just introduce them from the back, pop them under the hen when she is roosting. I did this with my buff orp and she looked very confused when they came out, gave them a couple of pecks and then accepted them! I did watch them for about half an hour and kept checking no them though

 

[LTygress]

Chances are VERY good.

I have four mixed-breed bantams co-parenting about 20 chicks right now. All of the chicks they hatched out are about 2 weeks old. But MANY of the chicks in that little flock also came from the incubator (it's cheaper to use a broody hen than a brooder lamp!)

Yesterday I had a new one hatch - by itself. It's a large-fowl ameraucana, so it's about the same size as the bantam chicks right now. I made sure to wait until he was standing steady before putting him outside, so at least he could run to catch up as the others moved around.

WellI JUST set the new chick outside before typing this out and watched for a while. The mommies wanted to peck at him at first, but when they realized he just hunkered down and didn't know what to do about it, they seemed to understand he was just another baby, and stopped pecking at him. Finally the hen that is currently leading the silkies around let him lightly peck HER face - and then puffed up and ran at ME when I reached down to touch him again! I knew right then that he had been successfully adopted!

I really wanted to mix this chick with the hens because he's another "lone hatch" meaning he wasn't hatched near the same time as any other chick. The hens will not only protect him and keep him company, but they'll also keep the other chicks from pecking on him too. While the bantam chicks are about his size, the hens are fostering some large fowl that are bigger, and I didn't want to run into those problems. But the mix has been successful.

And better yet - I didn't have to wait until night time when they were all piled up in the nest to sneak him under the mommies! That was going to be my alternative choice if they didn't accept him just now. But they did, and problem solved

 

[chicky baby]

I'm going to give it a try. I want my giants to have a proper chicken upbringing. Keep your fingers crossed!

 

[chicky baby]

Introducing my 6 day old white jersey giants:
Clementine, Clara-Bell and Tallulah.

 

[chicky baby]

My baby girls are 4-1/2 weeks old now. The silkie mommies did not adopt them ,but a young pair of leghorns did. Clementine, Clara-Bell and Talulah have been out with the flock for three weeks now. They are happy and healthy.

 

[tankgirl88]

I'm going to try this today. My daughter accidentally stepped on one of our babies today and broke it's neck. So I'm going to be picking up a replacement later and going to try to get the mother to take it in with the others. They are all about 2 1/2- 3 weeks old right now. Hopefully this will go smoothly. All the other babies were adopted by one of my buffs that was broody, and the other hens have all been nice to them. Hopefully that means that they can accept one more.

 

[chicky baby]

Good luck

 

[empireman]

I have a Sultan who hatched 4 out of 11 eggs a week or so ago. Two days ago - I put a dozen Aracauna chicks under a Black Copper Maran who sat on fake eggs for 21 days. They are in separate coops, but today I saw that one of the chicks that "was" under the Maran is now with the Sultan mom and her chicks. I was really surprised and have no idea how the the little bugger found her way to the Sultan hen, but - so far so good. So I guess - in my case - YES - another mother hen will adopt another hens chicks!