Breaking Broody
Olive is broody no more, but rather the proud momma of two chicks!
How you ask? Well, when you take a 15+ hour road trip that lands you near the hatchery where your flock has come from it turns out some portion of that trip (both out and back) gets spent discussing on the topic of your broody hen. There had been the slight chance we’d make it Meyer Hatchery on our way back, but it would have been tight and traveling the last few ours of our trip with a chick didn’t sound like the most responsible thing to do so we sat on this crazy theory for another few days before reserving chicks (from the same hatchery) through our local ag store.
With the chicks on reserve, Olive was given a small clutch of ceramic eggs which we talked up as her babies. We did all we could to encourage her to stay on those eggs, although it didn’t take much. Remember- she had been sitting in nests both empty and full of eggs for over 4 months at this point.
Chickie Momma’s searches changed from “how to break a broody hen” to “surrogate hen chick introductions.” The methods were pretty consistent- sneak the chick under her, remove the eggs. Best done at night and keep tabs on them to make sure they bond.
Okay, seemed easy enough but…what do you do with your 5 day old chicks between the time you pick them up and wait to have it be dark enough in a room for the introduction- especially if you’re trying to ignore them to help ensure they imprint on her, not you. I mean, aside from Chickie Daddy on near repeat that “they’re Olive’s babies, not yours.” And perhaps, the harder question to answer, what happens if she doesn’t accept them? Are you going to set up a brooder and go through the entire process, including flock introductions in about 10 weeks? Or do you try to find them other homes? Oh Olive, please accept these fluffy chirp monsters.
And you know what? She did.
Her motherly clucks, twirls, and purrs hushed the tiny chirps as she nestled them under her to keep them warm as the new trio drifted off to sleep. The next morning under supervision, as the light increased Olive was showing them how to scratch for food and drink water. Her babies not as new to these things as she may have thought were star students and quickly mastered the tasks.
The chicks are Twiggy and Sprout.
Twiggy the Golden Buff is the outgoing daredevil, always checking out who enters their space (often from her spot on Olive’s back).
Sprout is Olive’s shadow, keeping dangerously close to those talons belonging to her momma at time. Her peeps are often heard prior to seeing her peeking out from under Olive. She is a Salmon Faverolle with her 5 toes per foot, feathered legs, and chipmunk checks.
With the chicks accepted, the next challenge will be integrating them back into the coop so back to the internet searches we go!
