Can my Broody Hen hatch an incubator egg?

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outdoorbunny

outdoorbunny

Chirping
7 Years
Jun 12, 2012
46
11
89
Culpeper, Virginia
I have a broody bantam and she refuses to get off her egg. I have to push her out of her little coop to make sure she gets food and water.
I had started incubating 4 bantam eggs right before she went broody on me. They are due to hatch on the 14th (7 days from now). Is it too late to put one of those eggs under her and let her sit? I was thinking if she had a baby to look after, it would snap her out of her broodiness. But...will she think it's hers if it hatches so soon?

Suggestions please!

Debra
 
Debra,

I would reccomend simply waiting until the chicks are hatched and dry then slipping one underneath her while she is still setting and remove any eggs that she maybe setting on at the same time. We have done this before with broody hens with day old chicks from the feed store and they are none the wiser. It snaps them right out of setting when they see they have a baby to take care of. Good luck!

Donald
 
Good idea. I think I'll do that. Question: Since she shares a small coop with another bantam in a large pen with 13 other chickens (A mix of standards and bantams that roost is a bigger coop in the same pen) will the mother and baby be okay? Or should I pen off her small coop and move her roommate? I really hate to upset the order of things but I don't want mom and baby stressed or harmed.

Debra
 
I cannot really answer that question as we never had more than a few hens and they were not penned. They were free to roam the yard. I never witnessed any agression toward the chicks from the other hens. I suppose that your girl's position in the pecking order might effect the behavior of the others toward mom and baby. Also I would think that the amount of space that you have per bird might also have an effect. We never had any problems but again our hens were only confined at night. Maybe someone with some more relevant experience will chime in here. I wish I could be of more help.

Donald
 
I would make sure the others were unable to bother her for at least a few days. I just section off a small corner of the coop with some temporary panels until the chicks are a few days old.

As for hatching an incubator egg, I've done that and it worked fine. With all the jokes about chicken math, chickens really aren't that good at counting and don't know how many days it's been (JOKING! - but not about the days. If she's been sitting for a week or more then it should work out fine.)

Waiting until after dark and slipping the baby under her has the best chance of success in my experience. It's rare that it doesn't work.
 

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