adding eggs to a hen

[kathya]

I got my first chickens last spring and added several more this spring. I have 11 hens and 1 rooster. We recently decided to try hatching eggs. We bought an incubator and out of the first batch we tried, only 2 were fertilized and only one hatched. That was 5 weeks ago. We tried a second immediately after that. I had 12 fertile eggs. 5 died about halfway through, but I had 7 eggs that were alive and moving on day 20. They never hatched So we tried again. As of this morning, I have 21 in the incubator, on day 12. I also have a small cornish hen that we let sit on her eggs. She had 3 and the first one hatched this morning. That's the pic of her and her first baby . She has 2 left to hatch. My question is, can I take her chicks away from her and put some of the eggs from the incubator under her? Will she sit on them until they hatch? Or will that be traumatic for her? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Ridgerunner]

No you cannot. When she determines the hatch is over, which will be in the next few days if not sooner, she will transition from sitting on eggs mode to raising chicks mode. She will probably never go back to that nest again until she weans her chicks and starts to lay. She is going to be too busy raising chicks to hatch any more eggs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't think I'd try that. It could mess things up further. You can add chicks to a brood or add eggs prior to hatch but that sounds like a recipe for problems if not disaster.