broody hen hatching chicks - does it know what it's doing?

[Ladybird CA]

You can try giving the chick to her during the morning/day but if she pecks at it when wait until the night time. Chicks have the yolk sac so can go up to 72 hours without food, I'm not sure about water although hatcheries ship chicks that take about 2 days to get to people's homes so I am guessing it is not an issue either. But ofcourse if the mom will accept the chick, the sooner the better.

 

[Pork Pie]

You can try giving the chick to her during the morning/day but if she pecks at it when wait until the night time. Chicks have the yolk sac so can go up to 72 hours without food, I'm not sure about water although hatcheries ship chicks that take about 2 days to get to people's homes so I am guessing it is not an issue either. But ofcourse if the mom will accept the chick, the sooner the better.

Ditto water requirements as well as food.

 

[firefowl]

I put the 4th chick under her during the day time yesterday. It worked fine she accepted it no problems at all. Here's a photo of all 4 of them together.

Why is one chick black and the others yellow? I hatched 2 OE eggs and 2 maran eggs shouldn't there be 2 of each colour??

Also I tried candling the remaining 2 eggs in the incubator. On one of them I could see a whole bunch of spots all over it. The other one I couldn't see anything except the air cell. I'm guessing they are non-viable?

It will be day 24 in a few hours

 

[Ladybird CA]

Glad it went well with the 4th chick. Sorry I'm clueless on answers about chick color and whether the eggs are viable. Are they at least dark as in it looks like a chick could still be in there or do they sort of glow like an unfertilized/non-developing egg?

 

[bobbi-j]

At 24, I doubt they'll hatch. Congrats on the ones you did get! I'm glad she took them all without any trouble. As far as the coloring, maybe the person you got the eggs from got them mixed up and you didn't get what you asked for?

 

[Ridgerunner]

The egg with spots has not developed very much before it died or never started developing at all. When candling late in incubation those are called clears. When a chick is pretty much fully developed and before hatching all you should see is a dark mass and the air cell. You might or might not see movement. With a dark egg like the Marans eggs you often cannot see much other than a dark mass and the air cell. The one with the spots will not hatch. At this stage it is very unlikely the other one will but you can go another day if you wish as long as it is not stinking. Just don’t expect much.

Marans come in different colors/patterns. Do you know what the colors and patterns of the parents were?

There are no colors/patterns that are restricted to Olive Eggers. They can be any color or pattern. They are generally made by crossing two different breeds and probably different colors. When you mix genetics like that you can come up with all kinds of different colors/patterns in the second generation. If they are purebred then you will probably get just one general color/pattern the first generation but after that all bets are off.

Those eggs look very light for OE’s. My guess is that she crossed a Marans rooster with an Easter Egger or possible a blue egg laying breed to make OE’s. Do you happen to know the colors/patterns of her blue egg layers or the colors/patterns of the rooster she used to make Olive Eggers? With just one of the parents having different color/pattern parents it is pretty much to be expected that you will get different colors and patterns with the chicks.