4 Broody hens

[Jmwah_12]

Wanted to ask some advice! I have about 15 hens and 1 rooster. However about 4 of them have gone broody. Most of the time i incubate the eggs myself as I spent well over $200 on a machine, and when I let them brood, the eggs don’t hatch. However I can’t break them from being broody. They are quite the mean ones unlike some Broodies I’ve had in the past. I have to get gloves on just to check and candle the eggs but because I only have one rooster, about half the eggs aren’t fertilized. (He’s a silkie and they’re all way big girls). But I have four broodies but with eggs that may likely not hatch. What should i do? I would like them to be mothers but when I use the machine and attempt to let them adopt newly hatched ones, they will attack or kill the chicks, so I raise them on my own. But when I let them go broody, they won’t hatch. Any advice?


These are my girls btw^

 

[Mrs. K]

Well you being as you have the machine, you might try incubating them, then 1-2 days before they hatch - in the dead of night stick them under the broody?

Might put half under her, just in case, and if she does hatch those and keeps them, the next night, slip the rest under in the dead of the night. Broody hens can't count.

I have always had good luck, but I let my chicks get a little cold, peeping madly, then long after dark, I slip them in there, and they burrow in like ticks.

Mrs K