The love of a mother has no boundaries. When a small lost duckling was born into a family of hens, he learnt this.
Courtney Sugarman and her husband Caleb were seeking for a new activity to occupy their time during the spring. The animal enthusiasts decided to add six ducks and three fluffy silkie chicks to their household.
Until Courtney Sugarman noticed one of her hens lying on a duck egg in mid-November, the chickens and ducks typically stayed to themselves. She was baffled as to how the chicken had discovered it. Sugarman told The Dodo, “We stupidly imagined nothing could happen.” “So we just left the broody hen to her own devices.”
The hen lay seven eggs of her own shortly after and sat on all eight of them. “We left her and the eggs out in the coop, and to be honest, I was still skeptical that any of the eggs would hatch,” Sugarman said. “Then, [in December], I noticed that one of the chicken eggs had hatched beneath the mom.”
To keep the mom, her young chick, and the remainder of the eggs safe from the Vermont winter chill, the Sugarmans took them inside. And as time went on, more and more chickens began to hatch in the warm atmosphere.
Then something extraordinary happened: “About an hour later, we observed a duck beak emerging from behind her!” Sugarman explained.
The mom hen didn’t appear to detect a difference between the yellow duckling and her other fluffy, white chicks, and the small duckling imprinted on her right away. “She handled the duckling like the other chicks,” Sugarman claims.
Of course, the difference is clear to anybody else — especially as the duck grew…
… and grow.
However, the duckling continues to believe he is simply another member of the flock. Sugarman stated, “It behaves like it’s simply a giant lady.” “Because the duckling develops considerably quicker than the chicks, it swiftly outgrew Mama, but it didn’t make a difference.”
“Even if it didn’t fit, the duck would attempt to lie under Mama,” Sugarman continued.
When the mom hen got restless inside, she was eventually transferred back to the coop. But for the duckling and his chicken siblings, nothing has changed. “Now that the duck is as large (if not bigger) than Mama, the chicks snuggle up with it,” Sugarman added.
The fresh brood of kids will be let outside as the weather warms up so they may appreciate nature. Sugarman believes that even when the small duckling is able to rejoin the other ducks, he will still prefer to spend time with his chicken family.
“I suspect it’ll end up spending more time with the hens,” Sugarman said. “It doesn’t like swimming as much as the others did when they were younger.” It merely hovers around, peeping and squawking, until we return it to the chicks.”
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