What is happening with the two mother hens sharing a brood? They are still getting along. At night, they sleep side by side in the doghouse where they hatched their two chicks. It’s impossible to know where the chicks are sleeping. Are they under one hen? Is there a chick under each hen?
We’re calling them the interracial lesbian mothers. The chicks move freely between the two hens. The two hens aren’t exactly close. During the day they keep a few feet from each other, and it’s clear that each would rather have the chicks all to herself.
In the four years I’ve been watching hens hatch and raise chicks, there have been a number of unusual situations: hens which have given up incubating midway and replaced by hens which finish the job, hens switching clutches, and hens taking care of another hen’s chicks when the chicks were orphaned.