When Adaurie Stemshorn discovered a peacock’s nest on her property last spring, she immediately grew concerned. The peahens who roamed her land were wonderful at many things — like keeping bugs at bay — but motherhood wasn’t always their strong suit.
“Free-range peahens are not the best moms, and [I] haven’t seen more than 3 babies survive,” Stemshorn shared on Instagram.
Determined to give the fragile eggs a better chance, Stemshorn decided to enlist the help of an unlikely hero — her tiny bantam hen, Susan.
She gently collected three of the peacock eggs and placed them under Susan, who didn’t hesitate for a second.
The devoted little hen accepted them as her own, just as she had done months earlier with her first adopted peachick, Peawee.
That earlier rescue had been pure instinct. When Stemshorn found a single abandoned peacock egg, she brought it to Susan’s nest — and the loving hen immediately switched into mom mode.
“I decided to put the peacock egg underneath Susan,” Stemshorn told The Dodo. “Susan instantly was in mom mode with the baby.”
Within days, the egg hatched, and Susan became a proud mother to a baby peacock.
“She sat on it for only a few days, and then the baby peacock hatched,” Stemshorn said.
You can watch Peawee grow here:
From that moment on, Susan treated Peawee like any other chick — teaching her to scratch for food, taking dust baths together, and cuddling every night in the coop.
“Susan cuddled Peawee every night,” Stemshorn wrote.
Even as Peawee grew to be four times her mother’s size, Susan still tucked her under her wing each night.
Their bond was unshakable — a tiny hen and her towering baby, inseparable in every way that mattered.
“[She’s] bigger than [her] mommy now, but [they’re] always stuck together,” Stemshorn said.
So when three more peacock eggs needed help, Stemshorn knew exactly who to trust. Once again, Susan took in the eggs without hesitation and lovingly hatched and raised the new chicks.
Now, the three peachicks are thriving under Susan’s tender care, following closely behind the world’s most devoted adoptive mom.
On a farm where peahens sometimes struggle to raise their young, one small chicken has stepped up with boundless love — proving that a mother’s heart recognizes no boundaries of size or species.
“Susan is a supermom,” Stemshorn said proudly.
You can follow Susan and her growing family on Adaurie Stemshorn’s Instagram and TikTok.
