Introducing chick to hen.

[di]

Sorry!Seems to be one question after another at the mo!
As you possibly have read,out of the four chicks we hatched at home,three are little boys.
Andi has a friend who has a friend that hatched eggs under a broody hen & only one hatched.He's a little worried it will get bored/lonely & wondered if he could have one of our little boy chicks to pop with it.
Would it work?I know you can supposedly sneak day olds under,but would Mother hen object to one that's almost a week old being put with her?

[shirlthegirl43]

I guess the best idea is to try it and see what happens.

[Nicos]

I suppose you just have to give it a go-I think you'd know straight away

....Betty looked after one of the other baby chooks for a few hours ( it's mom was more interested in feeding herself and dust bathing than in showing the babe to eat) and Betty's 2 youngsters were a few days older.
Problem was -when it went back to it's real mom- (with a crop full of food)Betty had already decided that chick was hers- after about 2 hrs- and started to confront the other mom when it finally returned!
(Betty was quite happy to let it go under her wing when it was cold whilst the older ones were eating)

depends on the mom- as Shirl says- you can only try!

good luck

[JILLY JACKSON]

i tried that once with a silkie and she threw the chick a long way,luckily it wasnt injured.The chick would be ok if it still had its egg tooth which goes in a couple of days.

[RichmondHens]

The two chicks will need to be about the same age (hatched within a day or two of each other). I think your chick may be too old to go under a hen now. It will have got used to the brooder and not necessarily know that it needs to go under a hen to keep warm. Even if the hen accepts it, it may get out from under her in the night and get cold.

[RichmondHens]

Meant to say, single chicks are fine being raised on their own. They don't get lonely as they have mummy to keep them company and bond with.

[di]

I hadn't even thought about the chick not knowing what to do...was just thinking of the hen accepting or rejecting!,but now you mention it,I tend to agree!
We've decided to not try,I agree that the "lonely"chick should be fine with just Mummy....will probably be the most spoilt baby chick.