Cheetah, The Hen Raised Chick

This year I had some chickens go broody in the winter months and decided to try a winter hatch.

Seeing we were doing things off season, I figured it would also be a good time to try a bit of experimenting with raising a single chick within a flock. It would be our very first hatch of our own so it will be a keeper no matter what.

I also wanted to see how a Silkie would behave in a mixed flock, rather than with just other Silkies. Silkies have some strange behaviours that make them more unique.

I also wanted to know if giving a chick the best of both worlds was even possible. By this I mean having this single chick raised by a Hen, already integrated in a flock and being handled so it would also be hand-tame as if it were raised by hand. What? I like to spend a lot of time with my chickens ok!

One of the hens who was gone broody was one of the two alpha hens in the "egg factory" I don't have plans to breed any of the chickens in this group but, that didn't mean I couldn't sneak in someone else's egg.

So when the silkies laid again I placed a single egg under one the hen named Vanessa who had gone broody.

Vanessa was so into it. She sat without coming off at all. After about a week of her sitting the egg I realized she was not even eating. I started to hand feed her each day to accommodate her not getting off the nest. Typically a chicken egg will hatch in 21 days, give or take variables such as temperatures.

One day early, on Christmas eve the baby hatched. Vanessa was the surrogate Mom. The kids named it Cheetah. I think she will be a partridge variety of Silkie, she could be either a bare face or a bearded Silkie. I suspect Cheetah is a girl but there is no guarantee so we will have to wait and see as everyone says you can't sex Silkies unless invasively by vent.

Cheetah at one day old

Continuing with doing things different, I did not section off the brooding area as is typically recommended. Vanessa is an alpha female. I wanted to see if the other chickens would respect Vanessa and therefor her baby.

The flock has been very accepting from the start of little Cheetah and respect her and no one has so far attempted to pick on her. On occasion one of the young pullets in the group will get closer to the chick than Vanessa would like. Vanessa responds with a swift nip to the culprit and off they run, they never question it.

In the fourth week of Cheetah's little life, Vanessa's bio-sister also went broody, but something amazing happened, an interesting twist to the study of it all.

Coal started to share the same nest box as her sister and Cheetah. Within a few days, Coal was also rearing Cheetah as her own. Cheetah now had two alpha Mom's looking out for her every need.

As a single baby she has been heavily doted on between the two of them and is very spoiled already by the other chickens in the flock, no one makes any moves for her when she is running around, they all seem to just know better.

Sister Hens raising Cheetah together.

Now at six weeks, Cheetah is doing fabulous. She is really tiny for her age and I suspect will be a really small grown up Silkie, much like her bio-Mom is. She is already integrated into the flock so I won't have to worry about that part of it all later.

Cheetah at 5 weeks old

Vanessa and Coal (the surrogate moms) are both very tamed chickens. This has made it possible for me to sit with them every day and handle the chick a lot.

The scraggly stage is always cute

Please check back often for updates on Cheetah's story as she grows!

This experience has left me feeling good. Like it was worth the efforts of time and differences to do. I have had chicks raised this way go to homes and had the most positive feedback with how well rounded and good with people my chicks are. I plan to continue using this method to raise chicks instead of using an incubator. That's not to say I will never use an incubator but, I definitely prefer using hens when I can.

If you enjoyed this post, please visit my other posts on chickens

Keeping Chickens

Sexing a Silkie Chick

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