It all started a couple of weeks ago, when one of my hens decided she wanted to be a mother. When a hen’s mothering instinct kicks in, she “goes broody”. A broody chicken wants to sit on eggs, and once she has decided to do so, she can be pretty determined! She leaves the nest infrequently and only briefly, to drink, eat and poop. And if you bother her she growls, making impressively raptor like noises that are reminiscent of Jurassic Park. Since, I wasn’t planning on raising chicks this year, I decided to try to discourage her. That was my first mistake. For more than a week I repeatedly took her off the nest box, collected any eggs under her and put her out with the other chickens. As soon as I walked out of the chicken house she went right back to the nest box. In the evenings, I took her out of the nest and settled her on a roost bar with the other chickens. Every morning there she was back in the same nest box. Finally, I had to admit that she was more determined to parent then I was to stop her! I should have just let her sit on some eggs. I have two roosters, so she could have raised chicks. But now we were almost 2 weeks into her brood, and thanks to me she hadn’t even started raising babies.
I decided to take the quick and easy way out, and let her parent by adoption. I left her sitting on ceramic eggs in her preferred nest box, and picked up 4 very young chicks from Tractor Supply. As it got dark, I slipped the chicks under her, took the ceramic eggs out, and held my breath to see what would happen. Adult hens will kill unprotected chicks they do not recognize as their own, so if I couldn’t trick her into thinking they were hers, she would kill the chicks. One chick popped out immediately, and the hen gave her a half-hearted peck. I quickly tucked the chick back under, and waited. The hen looked curiously under her feathers, but did not peck again! When I left, the hen was sitting quietly, with the chicks peeping loudly beneath her. I checked back 15 and 60 minutes later. Both she and the chicks were quiet. I figured I had done what I could, and went to bed.
When I checked on them the next morning she was still sitting quietly in her nest with occasional peeps emanating from under her feathers. Success, I thought! I opened up the door to let the other chickens out into their yard, fed and walked the goats, and then returned to check on mama and her new babies. As I came to the door, it didn’t sound like things were going well. There was lots of excited peeping, and mom was clucking nervously. I entered to find two chicks running around on the floor in front of the nest boxes, while mom called to them anxiously, but refused to leave the chick remaining in the nest box. Mistake number 2, leaving her and the chicks in her preferred nest box. The chicks had hopped out of the box and were too small to get back up to it. A couple of the other hens were back in the chicken house, and a risk to the unprotected chicks, so I quickly scooped the last chick and mom out of the nest box and put them on the floor with the chicks already there. Mom immediately retreated to the space under the nest boxes and called the chicks, who disappeared under her. I put food and water where they could reach them and she stayed with the chicks under the nest box for 4 days, before she brought them out. Unfortunately, when they emerged the 4 were now 3. I suspect a chick was injured or killed by the other hens that first morning, while mom watched helplessly from the nest box, afraid to leave the chicks still with her, to rescue a chick in trouble on the floor.
As mama chicken shepherded the chicks out to join the other chickens free ranging in the yard, I recognized my third mistake. I had failed to consider just how small young chicks are, and all the potential predators outside the chicken yard. As long as the chicks were living with all the other chickens, closing mama and the chicks into the chicken yard meant keeping all the other chickens closed in. That has not gone well when we have tried it in the past. Fortunately, mom kept the chicks under a watchful eye, and after a brief adventure out of the chicken yard, took them back into the yard to peck and dig in the dirt there. Finally, as I closed all the chickens back into their yard after dinner, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought “That didn’t go so badly after all”. Those thoughts were short lived, as the mama chicken started clucking excitedly from under the chicken house. I turned to find that the three chicks had found a small opening in the chicken wire along the bottom of the chicken house, and were peeping around under my feet, OUTSIDE the chicken yard, while mom clucked anxiously from inside. I scooped up the chicks, and returned them to the chicken yard. I used a piece of wood to temporarily block that escape route. However, as I looked around, I saw there were more places they could squeeze out . NOT GOOD!
Never one to deny my errors, I resolved to move mama and the chicks to the other shed, where there was a fenced yard they could not escape from, and where I could keep them contained, while letting the rest of the chickens free range. I enlisted Gary to help gather them up, but since they were all hiding under the chicken house, we decided we would wait until they came back inside for the night. However, as dusk approached and the chickens came in for the night, mama and the chicks did not. I could hear the chicks still peeping from under the chicken house. A flashlight allowed me to see that mama and the chicks were as far back under the chicken house as they could get. As she settled the chicks under her, it sure looked like mama was planning to stay put. NOT OK. The chicken yard is not secure from nocturnal predators, like raccoons and possums. So, with dark approaching, I armed myself with a head lamp, a large fishing net, and Gary as back up. Then I crawled under the chicken house. It is a tight space with little room to maneuver. I imagined me with mom in custody while Gary chased three frantic chicks around in the gathering dark. Fortunately, when I covered mom with the net, the chicks stayed where they felt safest, right underneath her. I was able to grab them one at a time and pass them off to Gary. We released our little family into their new home, where mama quickly settled the chicks and herself into the back corner, as far from me as she could get. Today, they all spent the day happily exploring the shed, safe from other hens and outside predators. It is where I should have had them all along. Sigh! At least I am trainable, and next year I can skip all the mistakes.