Will a hen accept introduced chicks and rear as if her own - or do they just get rejected ?

Answer 1

She might accept newly hatched chicks if you can fool her into thinking that they are hers. The best time to introduce foster chicks is at night when her own are hatching or very shortly afterwards. Cover the hen and nest with a cardboard box (leave a few holes for air!) and slip the new chicks under her. Keep watch for a little while to make sure she doesnt attack the newcomers. If she takes the chicks keep them away from other birds for a while to avoid confusion.

This wont work with older chicks and is unlikely to work unless the broody's eggs are hatching.

Hens will sometimes try to steal each others chicks. This summer some of my chicks defected. They left their mother (who was low down the pecking order) for a high-ranking hen.

Answer 2

It will depend, I normally find that if you offer to pass the family allowance on to the 'new' mum she will accept them but if you just gona try and fab young kids off for free I think they will get rejected, a very sad but true fact of life.
If they do get rejected I have a very good recipe for chick and pea soup.

Answer 3

When I foster chicks this way, the mother only accepts them maybe 25-30% of the time. Now we just put them under heat lamps and they do great. My ducks on the other hand, have always taken in other ducklings (we raise Muscovey ducks).

Answer 4

It depends on the hen sone accept the chick some don't instantly.

Answer 5

Depends on the bird it is usually 50/50 chance she will reject them if she does you might have to hand raise them..Good Luck

Answer 6

What kind of chics..chickens or parrots. If you are talking about parrots it will usually accept babies of it's own species but if you put a baby of some other type of bird in there she'll kill it.