You can never tell

[Andy]

We had a topic on here the other day from Trev saying about a youngster that was beaten up when he tried moving it into another nest. We said at the time that youngsters need to be hatched under a foster pair in order to produce milk. I do agree. This is a bit different though. I had a pair of youngsters where one of them was considerably smaller than the other. This pair of eggs actually hatched a couple of days late. Really I probably should have got rid of the small one but don’t have the heart nowadays and decided to give it a chance. This youngster is about a week old now so pretty much off of any milk. So I had another pair who’s eggs hadn’t hatched and were sitting 3 days overdue. I thought I had nothing to lose so removed the eggs and slipped the youngster under the hen. She gently pecked it about a bit to start with then started feeding it. The cock bird took over during the day and the hen back on it overnight. They seem to have quite happily accepted this strange thing that has appeared in their nestbox.

[Murray]

Nice!

[Trev]

That's good news for both baby and foster parents Andy I have to say that over the years I have lost very few babies by moving them around wether they've hatched undervtge pair or not and if it wasn't for the aggressive spare hen I don't think I'd have lost the one this year either.
Let's hope tye baby grows nicely and goes on to repay you giving it a chance