cah you put newly hatched chicks in with full grown chickens?

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I have 5 silkie chicks hatched out in my incubator, Right now I have 2 broody hens setting on atleast 20 eggs. I am guessing they should hatch out this week. Can I put the chicks hatched from my incubator in with the others? Will the hens adopt them or will they kill them?

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), May 20, 2001

Answers

Don't do it! They will kill them. Once the hens hatch out their own you can slip them under the hen at nite,my hens can't seem to tell the difference. Daryll

-- Daryll (twincrk@hotmail.com), May 20, 2001.

TRACY. DON'T TRY IT. MY HENS WOULD KILL THE CHICKKS. WE RAISE POULTRY AND MARKET OUR EGGS. I AGREE WITH DARYL. SUNSHINE

-- SUNSHINE (GP83196@AOL.COM), May 20, 2001.

Tracy, it's according to the hen. I once had a little banty hen that would accept a turkey, a duck, a chicken or anything. She jus wanted to be a mom. Most hens will start pecking at the chick's head until they kill it. If you put them in there, watch really close. If she starts pecking at thier heads, take them out. Hope this helps. Eagle

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), May 20, 2001.

It depends on the hen. Put them under her with the other chicks after dark. Don't turn on any more lights than necessary to see, like a flashlight with your fingers across the beam. If she starts clucking and purring to it, you will probably do okay. If not, get the chick out of there quickly. Also keep the nest in the dark so she can't see a difference. Last year I had an Australorp hatch 6 chicks of her own. I had bought 5 from the feed store (they were a week old, the store owner wanted them out of the store because he was expecting more the next day and he gave me a good price on them) and grafted the bought chicks when the hen's own chicks were able to walk about easily. The bought chicks were 2 Cornish cross, 2 White Rock and a Buff Orpington. I was least interested in the Cornish chicks so I put one of them under her first. She just shifted herself to accomodate the relatively huge chick and never batted an eye. She took all 5. The next morning she had all these chicks peeking out from under her because the weather was pretty cool. She did just fine with them until my young Pyr decided he needed some chicken snacks. We had a very one sided conversation and he never went near the survivors again.

Last Thursday, I was at the right place at the right time. My feed store had had a batch of chicks delivered including a duplication of one order for 25 Cornish chicks and 24 sexed New Hampshire pullets. I didn't need the meat chicks but got a really good deal on the pullets. SO each evening all this week, the temperatures are supposed to fall into the low 40's. I have a heat lamp on them but at that temp I don't think it will be adequate. As luck would have it, I have 3 broody hens whose eggs I collected as usual and now they are "setting" a wooden nest egg. I'm going to try to foster these pullets onto the hens to let them keep them warm this week then let the hens raise the chicks. Maybe when they finish they will get back to egg laying. I sure hope so because my customers are ready for more eggs.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), May 21, 2001.


The other thing I have found is that if the chicks are more than a day or so old, the window of opportunity for them to accept a strange creature as "Mom" diminishes. I had some two day old chicks I placed with a silky...she wanted to be Mom, but they wanted nothing to do with her.

-- Jennifer (oortiz@tstar.net), May 22, 2001.


Hi! im 13 and from australia. I recently hatched 2 silky bantam and 3 light sussex chicks in my incubator, then popped them under my broody silky X hen (who is very tame and usually very kind). Immediately, she started pecking them. So i quickly picked them up and took them all back inside, until night time. So when it was dark, i put them back under her to see if the would accept them as her own. She started clucking and purring so I decided just to leave them with her and take a chance (I hand raised her myself and trusted her). I came back to her in the morning to see them all poking their heads out from under her, this was very satisfying. Now theyre about 5 weeks old and growing rapidly - she has been a great mum, and I now have 14 more on the way (hopefully

-- Lauren (lozi__babi@hotmail.com), June 09, 2001.

Hi! im 13 and from australia. I recently hatched 2 silky bantam and 3 light sussex chicks in my incubator, then popped them under my broody silky X hen (who is very tame and usually very kind). Immediately, she started pecking them. So i quickly picked them up and took them all back inside, until night time. So when it was dark, i put them back under her to see if the would accept them as her own. She started clucking and purring so I decided just to leave them with her and take a chance (I hand raised her myself and trusted her). I came back to her in the morning to see them all poking their heads out from under her, this was very satisfying. Now theyre about 5 weeks old and growing rapidly - she has been a great mum, and I now have 14 more on the way (hopefully).

-- Lauren (lozi__babi@hotmail.com), June 09, 2001.

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