Adding chicks to mama hen 2 days after hatch

[aart]

???

There are three groups of chicks:

--a few days old, with the hen
--just hatched, rejected by the hen
--4 week olds that had nothing to do with the hen. They just now got moved out of their cozy brooder so the rejected babies can have the brooder.

Yep, missed that. Sorry.

 

[Maverick1]

Hi,
Sorry to ask a question straight away but I’ve searched the forum and can’t find anything specifically on this topic.

I have a lovely, very maternal Light Sussex who went broody three weeks ago and I snuck 6 Barnvelder eggs under her. She sat on them like a champ but unbeknownst to me, she’d stashed a Light Sussex egg deep in the box and it hatched 2 days ago. She’s being a stellar mama but abandoned the other 5.

I rescued them and popped them in my incubator. They’ve started hatching today, 2 days later, but now I have a quandary! My one brooder box has three, 4 week old chicks in it. What’s the best thing to do with these new hatchlings? Sneak them under mama hen? Hope the 4 week olds don’t persecute them too much?

I hadn’t prepared for this!!

Yes you can. Put them under her at night when she has the chick under her. In the morning she will think she hatched it. I‘ve done that many times and you can even Do it if they are a week or so apart. I have had hens walking around with their chicks with different size chicks. if you have a chicken that has a chick already and have eggs in an incubator. You can put them under her at night as they hatch. You cannot put the eggs under her after she has already hatched a chick otherwise she will likely stay on the nest and the chick will die.