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I wouldn't call myself a chicken expert but I have, and have had, "a few" in my life for many years, ive never heard of a specific term used for a broody hen stealing eggs or chicks...
This may sound odd, but I find it kind of appalling that another hen would just walk off with someone else's babies like that. There ought to be a word for it, don't you think?
I'm not a chicken expert, but have raised chickens for many years. My observations are that hens do the communal thing. In a flock, there are hens that lay and hens that sit (brood). The hen that sits does not lay eggs, but jut incubates everyone else's eggs. The chicks are then hatched, and don't have a clue as to who mom really is.
All hens look out for the chicks. If one hen is really possessive over the chicks, it may be that the sitter has changed jobs and is now playing nanny....maybe 'broody' includes the nesting and the chick watching.
ours are the same owl, ive got 3 hens who will all brood through hatching, but once hatched 2 hens seem to loose interest and the 3rd just adopts everyone lol. (she just got done raising a batch of goslings because she decided their momma couldn't do a better job than she could...the geese didn't care and let her take over the job of sitting and raising (young gees eon their first laying cycle)
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