Can you slip bought chicks under hen?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

Has anyone had any luck slipping bought chicks under a broody hen?

Will the chicks take to the hen, and her to them, or is this a lesson in futility?

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 23, 2002

Answers

I believe you can but it is not always sucessful. The chicks, like most birds, will tend to bond to the first moving thing they see after hatching so the amount of handling they get prior to being 'adopted' is one factor. The broody hen will more likely accept the chicks if they are placed under here while she is asleep.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), January 24, 2002.

That's the way we always did it. Wait 'til we had a broody hen, throw a few nest-eggs (artificial) under her to keep her busy, order the day-old (or however many days they were) chicks, then slip then under her while she was asleep.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 24, 2002.

You might want to save some hatched out eggs shells and slip them in at the same time as the chicks.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 24, 2002.

We have done this a few times, just make sure the hen is setting long enough so it's realistic to her. You have to slip the chicks under at night. One time we gave a tiny banty hen 10 extra chicks the night after she hatched out 8 of her own. It was the funniest thing you ever saw watching her brood those chicks. When she would call them and settle down on them you could see chick parts sticking out everywhere. Luckily it was summer and she didn't have a problem keeping them warm.

-- Joe (botaur2@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002.

yep you sure can!

That mother hen just loves her baby chicks that she thinks she has hatched out! she tries to get them to stay close to her and show them how to eat and tries to protect them if danger is present!

The babies...never having spent their first couple of days in the nest under their mother...run around all over the place giving that mother hen fits! don't pay attention to her, eat what they want, and ignore the danger calls. Though the babies do stay fairly close to her.

Pooooor Mother Hen! but it is kind of cute!

-- westbrook (westbrook_farms@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002.



wow, thanks , i will be just starting with day old chicks this year , but thats a neat trick for the future :)

-- Beth Van Stiphout (willosnake@hotmail.com), January 24, 2002.

I've done it lots. The chanciest was a hen who had come off of being broody the week before the feed store got the day-old chicks in. I bought the chicks on the condition that I could return them the next day if the hen didn't take to them.

That night, I moved the hen into a medium dog crate full of hay with a nest scraped in the middle. Once she had settled down (didn't take too long as it was dark and she had been asleep), I started slipping the chicks under her. She squawked a bit each time then settled back down. Before daybreak I checked to see how they were doing. Everyone was awake and the hen was so happy to have her new little family!

The only time I've ever lost a chick doing this was when I moved the hen and tried to put the chicks in during the day. She was so distraught with her new location that she trampled one of the chicks. That night, I slipped the rest under her and everything went smoothly from there.

I'd be a bit more slick with an inexperienced hen (who's never raised chicks). Let her set on fake eggs in her safe nest for a while first, then slide the chicks in and the eggs out at night.

By the way, this is supposed to work best with chicks under three days old, but I once did chicks a week old and everything went fine. The chicks know a good thing when they find it!

Also by the way, make sure her nest is in a place where:

The chicks can get in and out by themselves (raised boxes won't do at all);

No other chickens can get to the chicks or hen during the day; and

No animals at all can get to the chicks or hen during the night.

As I said earlier, a medium-sized dog airline kennel works great for me. I keep it in my fenced back yard and close it up at night. Food and water are kept just outside the kennel. But I live in the city so you might have to do things a little differently on account of the different types of predators in the country.

Good luck with your little chickies!!

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), January 24, 2002.


After a new issue of Countryside gets a good reading through, it goes to the 'throne' room for follow-up reading. Noticed this in the Jan/Feb 02 issue, page 75, on capons.

Article says a capon (castrated rooster) can be used as a surgate mother. French method was to get it drunk by pouring a half-glass of wine down its throat and, while asleep, pulling some of the feathers from the breast. The little newly-hatched peeps were placed under him and, on awakening the next morning, the capon rapidly developed an affinity for them, due mostly to the fact that the denuded part is kept warm by the chicks.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 02, 2002.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ