A tale of two mother hens. An adventure in co-parenting.

Usually mother hens are fiercely protective of their chicks. One hen with her baby chicks. But as everyone who has animals knows, they don't always do what the books say. Sometimes they make their own rules. This is the case with our two little moms.

Meet the girls

One silkie bantam, Gandolf the White, and one brabanter, J Chicken,  found each other and became instant friends. These are two very different breeds of chickens and the first time I saw them together was on their nest.
21 Days on the nest
They decided to sit on the nest together from the very beginning. They had never really been chicken friends before but they sure decided that they were going to do this together. for 21 long days they sat on the nest side by side. When adoption day came I brought both chickens inside and separated them before I gave them their new chicks. You see, their eggs weren't hatching so I bought some day old chicks to slip under them so they would think their eggs had hatched. I wanted to separate them because I thought they might get violent and steel each others chicks or hurt each other. NOT. THE. CASE! The second I separated them they started going nuts clucking and flapping trying to get back to each other. Well this wild chicken show lasted about 5 minutes in my dinning room before I realized I had to put them back together. So back they went. When nighttime came I slipped into the coop and put two chicks under one chicken and two chicks under the other one and prayed that they would keep their chicks and there would be no hen fighting. Now I waited.

Protectors
Once the they came both moms they went into full protector mode. Protectors of their chicks and of one another. I almost couldn't stand the cuteness when I went into the coop to find the on mom with her wing over the other mom and chicks. I couldn't make this stuff up!

They have been teaching the chicks everything they need to know and doing it together, co-parenting. I guess sometimes you need a partner to help and in some cases a rooster just won't do.

I feel like these two are forever friends now and I love watching them lead their babies around the yard everyday. Only time will tell what their relationship will be in the future, but for now they are together forever.