Willow, the first chicken I hatched became a mom today.
Unfortunately, she has fowl pox and is unable to see from one eye. She panicked when the babies hatched and killed one and pecked one hard so I had to take her chicks.
Yes, the baby looks downtrodden but don’t worry, it already has a tude:
In Willow’s case the jury is still out as to whether or not she would be a good mother or not, considering her current state of health I’ll give her a pass this time.
I’ve discovered the animal kingdom is just like the human world – there are great parents and there are terrible ones and still others who have zero desire to be a parent at all.
I’ve had bucks who I worried would kill their offspring but my current buck is a phenomenal father. He seems fully aware they are his kids and protects and plays with them happily. He acts like a kid himself around his babies. It’s heartwarming to watch.
I’ve had chickens who want to be mothers but simply can’t sit still on the eggs long enough or neglect the chicks as soon as they hatch. Some turkeys and geese will sit and sit on eggs but don’t tend to them (they need to be turned and monitored) and then the babies are early quitters in the eggs.
My oldest and very mean hen, Bria (Seriously, she should have been a mountain lion.) only has a place of honor here because of her incredible mom skills. She would fight off a coyote to save her babies. She raises very healthy offspring and sticks with them even into their adulthood. She hates me but I admire her. Her overall attitude with her chicks is “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
If you sit and pay attention to all the animals with their babies here you’ll notice their varying methods of parenting. Babycakes was wonderfully sweet to her littles versus Bria who is always frazzled and fussing. She runs her family like a drill sergeant.
I lost Babycakes this year to a snake attack. I wrote about it here. She’ll always be in my heart. She was amazing at hatching eggs and raising loving, healthy babies.
Some animals worry over their babies and won’t let them have fun with others. Like Gemma Jane with her first kid – she wouldn’t let her chubby baby play with the other kids for weeks so Chloe played by herself until one day she sneaked away from her mom and I caught her with the others – Gemma was napping while this happened.
Animal parents can even have favorites – and it’s not uncommon. When Valentina had her twins she allowed Gemma Jane to nurse only if I made her and basically ignored her for the first two weeks while she doted on her buckling. It stunted Gemma Jane’s emotional growth for almost two years. Now Gemma is loving but still distrustful of most other people.
Mother’s like Maybelle have a lot of patience and are very lenient with their little ones in general:
Even roosters can be active fathers:
There are certain breeds that have reputations for not being interested in babies and others who are known for it. This can be generally true but, like people, animals are very much individuals so I tend to take each on a case by case basis.
xo