Broody hen rejecting one (hatchery) chick

[Poppy Putentake]

Advice sought!

I have a Wyandotte hen that has successfully raised four previous sets of hatchery chicks. Each time, I got the hen broody a while in advance with fake eggs, (in a separate enclosure for the chicks with an oversized nesting box), but put the chicks in a "mama heating pad" type brooder for their first day. Then, each time, maybe an hour before dawn, I took away the fake eggs and slipped the chicks under the hen.

This fifth time, with six chicks, everything went fine for the first three days, then I made the mistake of thinking I could just add one new chick. The hen rejected the new chick, pecking at it and chasing it. I could get the chick to stay under the hen in the nesting box for a while, but as soon as the hen actually saw it, she rejected it again. After several tries the chick actually ran from the hen into the safety of my hand -- very unusual behavior for a chick! The other chicks all seem well bonded with the hen.

Is the window of opportunity for the hen to accept and bond with this new chick closed? What is the best way to proceed at this point?

I don't think rearing a single chick alone is a good idea, but I have only one enclosure for rearing chicks. (The other tractor houses several grown laying hens.) So, it would be a housing problem to split this brood. Taking *all* the chicks away from the hen and rearing them myself would mean needing to someehow break the hen of broodiness just as she has begun raising chicks, and the hen being able to see and hear those same chicks.

Right now I have all the chicks back in a brooder, the hen separate from them in the outdoor brooding enclosure. What to do next?

 

[ChickNanny13]

So the chicks are all in the brooder, separated from the broody?
Is the single chick with the rest of the chicks?
If the chicks are all together, broody separated to reintroduce them to her now maybe not be a good idea. Can they be raised in the brooder until ready to join the flock?

IF you have ALL the chicks together, at this point best to raise them together, integrating with your flock when they are ready to do so. It would be harder/worst to try integrating one newbie than several to the flock. To break the broody, broody jail; wire cage with wire bottom, suspended (ventilation all around), food & water for a few days.

No clue as to the window to adding chicks under a broody, 3 days don't seem like a gap but thinking how fast chicks grow, maybe it's too much time. I'll be following to learn, that's what's great about this site.

 

[Yardmom]

I'm surprised that the window to add was already gone, but it sounds like she saw the added chick an intruder to the ones she already knows as hers. I'm not sure if you have taken her chicks that they can be given back. If you decide to try maybe consider giving her half and keeping the other half in a brooder.( Instead of keeping a chick alone).

 

[Poppy Putentake]

So the chicks are all in the brooder, separated from the broody?

Yes. (I was thinking of trying agaiin in the morning, with just that one chick.)

Is the single chick with the rest of the chicks?

Yes

If the chicks are all together, broody separated to reintroduce them to her now maybe not be a good idea. Can they be raised in the brooder until ready to join the flock?

I could do that -- did it two years ago when the Wyandotte refused to go broody. (Got that batch of chicks in early April, not May -- maybe too early in the year for her broody instincts.) The Wyandotte ignored those chicks in their outdoor enclosure, but went broody in late May, (just when they were no longer chicks). I've had to break that bird of broodiness several times. It just seems like a shame and a waste to do that at the same time as I'm hand-rearing chicks myself.

 

[Poppy Putentake]

Third day follow up:

I put *all* the chicks in the “mama heating pad” brooder in the garage.They complained (peep,peep PEEP!) for a while but settled down, and the Wyandotte did not seem happy either (making it clear why one speaks of an unhappy person as “brooding”). I put some fake eggs in the nesting box in the outside brooding enclosure, thinking maybe I could just do a repeat of introducing the chicks three nights before. Part of my idea was that if the hen got very lonely for chicks, she would be more likely to accept the new one.

About an hour before dawn, I put the new chick (alone) under the hen. Nothing much seemed to happen for a few hours until it started getting warmer, then I noticed the hen acting in a nurturing manner towards the new chick -- clucking, putting food on the ground for it to eat, and gently tucking it under her. I wanted to be sure this would really “take”, so I delayed reintroducing the other chicks for a couple more hours. When I did, both the hen and the chicks seemed to get very excited, the chicks scampering towards the hen and the hen loudly clucking, then giving all the chicks a lesson in scratching. Two days later, the hen has continued to treat the new chick the same as the others and all seems well.
I'm thinking, this is what I should have planned on in the first place -- introducing the chick at night the same way I did the first bunch. I'm not sure whether taking away all the chicks was an essential part of this, but it probably helped.
I must have thought the hen would just not notice one more chick in the brood, but clearly she did. Animals and their social groups are not machines with interchangeable parts!
Giving chicks to a hen at night seems to work because the chick will stay underneath until it gets warm and light. During that time, the hen can only feel the chick, but can't see it. I'm not sure whether “bonding” happens only when the chick emerges and the hen sees it, or whether vocalizations from the chick before then are also part of it. It would probably also work to add chicks in the evening after dark, but I tend to favor very early morning because the whole night is a long time for something to go wrong, like a chick wandering away and getting cold.
The chicks clearly like hen-rearing better than brooder-rearing, which suggests that it is good for them.

 

[ChickNanny13]

 

[NagemTX]