Step chicks
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Some of you already know this, but I didn't and maybe it's news to you as well.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to observe a brood of tiny baby chickens following and scratching for food with an adult female. There were six of seven of them and their coloration was identical to hers. She was obviously their mother. Among the chicks was one about the same size as its mates but colored very differently. It was following along at the edge of the group.
The woman who raises the chickens must have seen me watching. She said, "She [the hen] doesn't like that one. He's not hers."
I took heart from that. Human women are not the only creatures who have an innate aversion to outsiders' young.
Hah my Dh always says that
Hah my Dh always says that you are the only one who doesn't like or talk to sd!
Thats like my husband saying
"Why you complaining all of a sudden about my kids" when i stopped being walked over.
i told my husband if he wanted me to like his kids, then make them pleasant and respectful because they're such toxic arseholes that nobody would willingly torture themselves with their presence. That he was also responsible for the appalling way they turned out. That shut him up real quick.
I have chickens. If she
I have chickens. If she hatched it she will care for it. Doesn't matter who lays the egg in the nest since they tend to all add to the clutch.
If she didn't hatch it then that explains it. But some hens are mother obsessed and will accept incubator hatched chicks. If you give them duck eggs to sit on they will hatch and raise the ducklings.
I've had 2 hens sitting on nests next to each other and they would steal eggs from each other. And those eggs were from multiple other hens in the flock. In the end only 3 chicks hatched for one hen. They both acted as mother hen to those chicks. Both hens were white and the chicks were not.......because the rooster is not white and the some of the eggs she was incubating were from black hens.
Chickens have neat social structures especially when it comes to new birds being added to the flock.. some hens are excellent mothers and some aren't. I can see where certain behaviors mirror that of people but there is a big spectrum for both creatures that go from the extremes of stealing another's offspring to abandonment with guarding resources to sharing resources and co-raising in the middle.
Mammalian nature, as is
Mammalian nature, as is Orintholigical nature, is to propagate one's own genes and preserve resources for one's own progeny.
I had a visceral revulsion to my SS briefly when his mom and I were first dating. At that time I happened to watch an Animal Planet special on lions. When. a new male lion takes over a pride they will kill the cubs of their predecessor to initiate estris in the lionesses and focus the pride on supporting new male's progeny.
I made a concerted effort to bond with my Skid. After all, humans have the ability to make honorable choices and the responsibility to make those choices.
That said, if a mate sucks so bad as a parent that their baggage are Ill behaved intolerable shits, that isn't on the SParent. Not that we eat them as the lions do.
To continue with
To continue with ornithological nature, the cow bird lays eggs in another bird's nest for another species of bird to hatch and raise. The chick is usually larger than the other species chicks and takes up nest space and food, leaving the mother birds biological chicks to be pushed out or starved. Then you have species with 2-3 fully related chicks, the last chick to hatch is pushed out of the nest or pecked to death by its siblings.
I think about the lion thing every time I see kids I don't care for...as in ya'll lucky we are not lions. LOL
That made me think of
That made me think of something I heard years ago, "when your kids are babies they're so cute you just want to eat them. Then, with they reach their teens, you wish you had ..."