Broody-1st time- egg question

bantyshanty

Oval Office Courier
10 Years
Oct 6, 2009
568
17
141
S.W Pennsylvania
My silkie's been brooding 3 wooden eggs for 14 days now. The day I saw she was brooding, I ordered some cochin eggs, since she hadn't ever been mated by my roo when she went broody.
The egg to survive USPS is developing well & has 9 days to go before hatch.
My hen only has 7 days to go before Day 21.

So which day should I stick this egg under her for best results. Day 18 for her? She'll sit on it for 23 days until it hatches, no problem, right? I should sneak into her nest box while she's sleeping & switch eggs, right?
Maybe I should have mastered those story problems better in grade school, right, lol?


Why she has wooden eggs... The day she went broody, she went into the nest box meant for the younger pullets, with 3 decoy eggs in it, and started sitting, thus the wooden eggs. We'd removed her eggs promptly each day to eat, since she's our only layer.

Bonus question: Why did she never let our roo mate with her? She's a huge silkie, he's a small one. She boxed him off constantly. Is this normal? Every day checked for a bulls eye in the yolk. Never had any.
 
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Let me see if I understand you: you've got the fertile egg in an incubator right now?
 
I've never used an incubator myself, only broodies. I placed the fertilized eggs under the broody as soon as I got them and let her do the whole job. I'm not sure what to advise in your situation.

I do know you don't want to be moving eggs in the last few days before scheduled hatch, the so-called "lockdown" period where you stop turning them. Good luck!
 
From what I've read, you can stick chicks under a broody at night and they'll think they hatched them. Then they'll raise the chick. Maybe that's an option?
 
The hen will probably do a better job of hatching and raising chicks than your incubator will. Why not take all the eggs out of the bator and give them to the hen? Then you don't have anything to do but wait for the chicks to hatch.
 

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