Part 1 - Attila the Hen and Joan Jett
Here they are! The second batch of baby chicks.
This batch of babies (all pullets), the Dirty Dozen, included four Welsummers, 4 Ameracunas and 4 Cuckoo Marans.
If you are counting, you'll only see ten babies in the photo. That's because two of them were already with their foster hen mother.
Earlier this year, I successfully used one of my Cochin hens to foster three Buff Orpington chicks. You can read about that project here: Operation Chicken Little
High off of that success, I figured it would be a cinch to use other broody hens to foster this new batch of twelve.
Wrong!!
If you are planning to try the foster hen program, there a couple of things that seem to be essential for success. First, the obvious one which is a broody hen. You'll know you have a good broody when she's been sitting tight on a nest for at least a week. You can let her sit on some eggs or use fake eggs or even golf balls. Anything that resembles eggs is fine. And second, at least for the first couple of weeks, you need to isolate the broody hen and the foster chicks from the rest of the flock. This protects the hen from interference from the flock and prevents the babies from wandering away from momma. Unconfined chicks can stray away from their mother and be unable to find their way back. They'll get chilled and die or else be at risk of attack from the rest of the flock.
The isolation pen doesn't have to be fancy. I fashioned one from a scrap of chicken wire, a grill from an old oven and a piece of plywood. For this round of fostering, I used cardboard from a medium-sized box to partition off part of the coop floor where my Silkie Bantam had built a nest for herself.
Some other ideas are rabbit pens or dog crates. It simply needs to be large enough to hold the hen and babies plus food and water containers. And it needs to be secure so the chicks can't get out.
But meanwhile, back at the ranch, I will share with you the semi-disastrous experiences I had this time around.
The day before I got the chicks, I had three broody hens; a Silkie Bantam, a Cochin and a Buff Orpington. All three of those breeds are well-known for their mothering skills and willingness to foster chicks. Yay! Of course when I have a dozen peeps in a box waiting for their foster moms, the Buff Orpington goes off the nest. That left me with two hens.
The Silkie Bantam, whom I have named Joan Jett because of her hairdo, had made a nest for herself in a dark corner of the coop.
In the middle of the night I slipped two of the chicks under her. No problems at all. In the morning, Joan was mothering the chicks and the chicks were happy and doing little chicken things like scratching for food. Success!
You can see one little peep butt at about 6 o'clock under Joan Jett.
Since Joan Jett did so well with the first two, I wondered what would happen if I gave her two more. I did not wait for night time. While the first two were out from under her and eating, I put two more chicks in the isolation pen with them. Chickens are smart, but they can't count. And Joan Jett gathered the two new ones under her just as gently as could be.
I know that it all sounds hunky-dory but you haven't met Attila the Hen yet.
Attila the Hen is the name I've given to the broody Cochin that is also a part of this round of foster mothering. She is a force to be reckoned with!
Attila was sitting tight in a nest box and needed moved into isolation. In the middle of the night I picked her up and put her in isolation. She pecked me hard a few times in the process. Come morning, she was frantically trying to get out of the pen, so I let her out and she went back to the nest box. The next night was the same. She pecked when I picked her up to move her and in the morning, she was trying to get out of the pen. Attila did NOT want to be in that isolation pen. So much for that tactic.
Here I was with eight chicks needing a foster mother and Attila the Hen who was resisting my efforts to make it happen.
In the event the fostering fell through, I have the heat lamps and such to raise the babies on my own. But the ideal situation is for a hen to do the work. She teaches the babies how to be chickens plus the babies are naturally integrated into the flock pecking order.
As a last ditch effort, I decided to leave Attila in her nest box and just slip the chicks in with her. I set my alarm for 4:00 AM for Operation Peep Sneak said a few prayers! This is when Attila the Hen got her name.
She pecked ferociously at me when I tried to put the chicks in with her. I used a piece of cardboard to block her because she was blindly attacking anything that moved near her, including the chicks! But once the chicks got underneath Attila, she settled down. And I settled in to monitor the situation. I sat on an upside-down bucket in the coop in the dark and listened for any signs of peep distress.
Come daylight, everything seemed to be OK. Attila was sitting quietly in the nest box with the chicks. Anytime another hen would approach, she would make angry clucking noises and try to peck the intruder.
I took a break to feed some breakfast to the horses, myself and my husband. When I went back to the coop, things had fallen apart. Attila had moved to another nest box and that spelled trouble. Inside the nest box she'd left were two dead chicks. I don't know if Attila killed them deliberately or accidentally. But it was so sad! Two live chicks were left behind in the old nest box, two managed to follow Attila to the new nest and two were missing.
This is why figuring out a way to isolate the broody hen prior to introducing the foster chicks is so important! If she's confined, she can't move someplace where the chicks are unable to follow.
I picked up the two chicks who'd been left behind and put them in with Attila. She got me a few times in the process but didn't go after the chicks. I used a scrap of cardboard to close off the nest box so Attila and the chicks would stay put. Then I went searching for the missing two. One had made it all the way outside into the run and was huddled in a corner, peeping pathetically. The other was still inside the coop, wedged in a corner and looking very miserable.
I brought those two up to the house and put them under a heat lamp. To help their little bodies recover, I gave them these electrolytes in some water.
But it was just too much for their tiny bodies. Within 12 hours, both had died.
I had made several errors and now four chicks were dead. First, Attila wasn't isolated before introducing the chicks. And second, when I first put the chicks in the nest box with her, I should have blocked off the entrance to the nest box so she couldn't leave and the chicks couldn't accidentally get out.
Attila seemed to be OK now, though. She was fluffed up and would cluck softly to the four chicks who were nestled in her feathers. But boy howdy she'd turn vicious in an instant if another hen came near or if I tried to see if the chicks were OK.
The next day, I successfully moved Attila and the four chicks to the isolation pen. (while wearing heavy gloves and a long sleeve shirt as protection from her sharp beak!) She was completely bonded to the chicks and them to her. Even in the isolation pen, Attila is living up to her name. She perceives any hen in the vicinity as a threat to her babies.
Although you can't see them, there are four chicks under Attila!
Joan Jett and her four chicks were also doing well. She's a devoted little momma!
This morning, all eight surviving chicks are doing fine. It's fun to watch the little puff balls come out from under their Momma's feathers to get some food or a drink.
At one point, I watched Attila move to another part of the isolation pen. The four chicks were under her when she did. She was all fluffed up and twice her normal size to cover the babies and moved in kind of a crouch across the pen. Little chick feet scrambled under her to keep up. Wish I'd had some video of that!
If you have been reading this as part of your efforts to learn how to use a broody hen as a foster mother for chicks, please don't be discouraged by the troubles I had. Learn from the mistakes I made.
Isolate your broody hen a few days before introducing the chicks. And make sure hen and chicks can't be accidentally separated.
Please feel free to ask any questions or voice any concerns you might have regarding foster hens. I would be happy to give you suggestions or advice on your unique situation!
In Part 2 in the Cheeper by the Dozen series, things go awfully, horribly wrong.
Here is a link to Part 2:
Cheeper by the Dozen - Part 2
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