My new chick that hatched in the chicken house is 6 days old, mum is looking after her very well, but i am frightend that the othere chickens do somthing to the baby chick, should i take the chick of its mum, or put the chick with an othere chick that was born 2 days a go in a bater, now is under the infrared light. i have 6 adult chickens in the hen house, that the broody hen and baby chick is.
Thank you weimac.
my new chick is still with broody hen
i just saw this, did anyone answer you yet? i dunno, haven't raised chickens by hens YET. but i am always "better safe than sorry"...
I had a group of hens that would attack any baby chicks I would introduce to their pen.
Then one of the same hens went broody and hatched 2 chicks of her own......... and her attitiude was totally different with them.
Any time the others would show an interest in the 2 babies, the mother would defend them fiercely. I think the others would have hurt them, but the mother was so protective, they didn't seem to have a chance to get to them. She was a very protective mother hen. This went on very well for about 2 weeks, so I assumed this must be how nature takes care of it's own.
But then one morning when I went out to feed, one of the babies was dead.
I really have no idea what happened to the poor little thing....... but I took the other one out of the pen. I wondered if the others managed to get to it after all. I think maybe I should have taken the mother and her babies out and put them in another pen.
never under estimte the love and devotion of a mother hen she will put all her attention into protecting it feeding it getting it bigger and getting it to the pullet stage then its up to itself(probaly not to the pullet stage but when it can sort of fend for its self)
can you bring hte Mum AND her chick in with your bator chick? if it is new and she is broody anyhow, she may adopt it. then when chicks are about two weeks old, reintroduce to the flock, maybe with a partition?
i sure would be careful. she has only one chick, but she is outnumbered 6 to 1...
I think that's what happened to mine. She had 2 chicks and was outnumbered. Maybe while she was protecting one, the other one got attacked.
As for the incubator chick......... I think I might slip it under her after it gets dark when she can't see. If her hormones are geared toward being a mommie during her broody time, she will probably adopt it.
However, I've not tried this........ I'm just guessing.
I currently have my broody and her two chicks in a big cardboard box in my dining room. I agree. Better safe than sorry!