Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>]

> Nobody knows how to raise a baby better than a Mama - Good for you Harvey to 
> realize that. Which varieties have you had the best experience with 
> "adoption"? I'd like to get myself a good old Mama hen to raise some babies, 
> but I don't really want to limit myself to a single breed so I thought if I 
> snuck in other eggs she might raise the others too, but I don't want a smart 
> or a bigoted chicken that would recognize the difference if you know what I 
> mean.
>
> Tameson - a Mama Hen herself - currently nursing #3 

To me, "adoption" could mean two things: You seem to imply it in the 
sense of putting eggs from other hens--i.e. your preferred 
selections--under a hen. Believe me, a serious broody doesn't care whose 
eggs you put under her--she wants to work! I collect eggs from my 
breeders and keep them on hand, rotating out the older eggs. Anytime a 
hen goes broody I have eggs all ready to go. I've even set duck and 
turkey eggs under chicken hens with good results--once even had a bantam 
hen hatch out a gosling! What a hoot--gosling was almost as big as mama 
from day one!

"Adoption" can also mean giving live chicks (e.g. ones you've bought 
thru the mail, or from another hen who had some sort of problem). I've 
usually had excellent results, but it's not sure-fire. Here's a quote 
from my BYP article on broody hens (pardon the formatting):

Grafting chicks onto a broody hen
If my description of the advantages of a broody hen over the artificial 
brooder sounds good to you, you might conclude that it would be great to 
give purchased day-old chicks to a broody hen to mother. Will a broody 
accept such an offer?  Maybe. Most of my attempts to “graft” purchased 
chicks onto a broody hen in this way have been successful. However, 
never assume that success is certain, and be prepared to brood the 
chicks yourself if the hen doesn’t cooperate. The hen should have been 
on the nest a couple of weeks—she is unlikely to accept a “graft” if she 
has been broody only a couple of days. But you can “hold” a willing 
broody on her nest with plastic eggs for 4 or even 5 weeks until your 
purchased chicks come in. The hen is not counting off days on a mental 
calendar—she moves on to the next phase when she hears live chicks under 
her.
To make a “graft,” you should again work only at night. Remove the 
plastic eggs and slip the chicks (who have been kept quiet in their 
shipping carton through the day) under the hen. Check on them later that 
night, and again at first light. Chances are excellent the hen will be 
delighted to welcome “her” new babies into the world. I have only a 
couple of times had a hen reject grafted chicks, but in the worst case, 
the hen killed a few of the “intruders.” Monitor closely and be prepared 
to intervene.
My most spectacular success grafting chicks occurred with a White Jersey 
Giant hen named Hope. Hope came off the nest with only six chicks of her 
own. Shortly after I put her and her chicks in a section of the poultry 
house, I bought in 42 day-old chicks, and set them up in a brooder in 
the next section. Believe me when I say that Hope asked to be mother to 
those new chicks, and when her “request” finally penetrated my thick 
skull and I opened the door between the sections, Hope rushed in and 
began busily mothering them.
But that is not the end of the story. That night I tried grafting ten 
purchased goslings onto a broody goose. The goose was willing, but the 
goslings wouldn’t “fix” on her, wouldn’t recognize her as mother, and 
kept wandering off through the dew-wet grass. By morning, goslings were 
going down like dominoes. In desperation, I scooped up the remaining 
seven and prayerfully offered them to Hope. She didn’t even blink.

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us