Kelsey Wulf, owner of Rough and Tumble Farmhouse, shared the cutest story on Instagram about her two hens that ended up with a big brood of babies after they both hatched their chicks at the same time.
Everything started fine, but the two new mothers quickly became confused about which babies belonged to which of them. Instead of trying to figure it out, they both decided just to raise all the babies together. Now they’re just one big happy family!
We love how, at the end of the video, Kelsey crowned the hens ‘Coparenting queens’; it’s very fitting! She also said in the video’s caption, “I’ve never seen this in all my years of raising chickens. Good on you girls.”
Related: Funny Video of Hen Singing the ‘Egg Song’ Has the Internet Totally Delighted
Commenter Reactions to the Coparenting Hens
Viewers left hundreds of comments about hens choosing to share babies. @ispeak4detrees shared, “I have two hens raising the same flock, too. What’s hilarious to me is that these hens couldn’t stand each other for two whole years, but now they’re getting along just fine for the sake of those babies.”
@savannahshanae could also relate, “I have two sister hens that raise all their babies together! They’ll also basically take any baby I give them, so they’re pretty special!”
Viewer @karlamcurry shared a similar experience, “We had two hens both wanting to mother a single chick we hatched… so they did! It was the cutest thing.”
@basking.lizard is going through the same thing, but with ducks, “I’m watching two Merganser ducks do this LOL! The chicks aren’t the same size, so it’s cute to see the variety of sizes and the mamas are running a day care together… one mama will fly upstream to grab lost chicks in the rapids and guide the strays back to the other mama and the brood.”
Naysayer @petercastler shared, “They don’t get “confused”, chickens are the definition of “it takes a village…” they regularly take turns hatching each other’s eggs etc.” @Kelsey replied back with, “I’ve raised chickens for over 15 years and trust me, this was definitely a confused situation at first. I simplified it for an Instagram reel.”
We’re so happy Kelsey shared this sweet story, and hope she continues with updates about the family, too. Those two mamas definitely have their hands, ur, wings, full right now!