Broody hen, should I give her some chicks?

[Bowen Mt Chicken]

Okay, well one of our lavender araucana's/ EE has gone broody just in the last week, she is sitting on some plastic eggs and steals eggs off the other hens when they lay them, we have a batch due to hatch this Saturday and are now in lock down with the incubator, she is only 9 months old and her mother currently has 5 little chicks that are 3-4 weeks old, we also have a few other hens in the coop that are not bothered by the chicks and have never hurt them or attacked them at all, should I give this hen some of these chicks when they hatch and see how she goes, if I give her any I will only give her a few to test her, we have 35 eggs in lock down, some are for the school and some we are going to raise to sell, we are only keeping a few of the bantam rumpless araucana's and a couple of the other chicks depending on their sex and what they look like when feathered. Her name is Jewel, she has a wonderful temprement and had been helping her mum with the other chicks but keeps getting chased away when she hangs around them for to long, should we try her with a few or try and get her off, we are in Australia so the weather is warm as we are in spring.

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

Thats what I would do. Sneak a few chicks under her at night and take out the plastic eggs. Most of my broody chicks hatched at night anyway. It's hard to break a broody. I had a Black Sex Link go through 3 sets of eggs before she finally hatched 2. I was afraid she was getting sick cause her comb and wattles turned real pale. She has been the best mommy they are 6 wks old and she still takes care of them. They roost with her up on the 10 ft. wall between the stalls. Took her a week to teach them to get up there. Oh she is the head hen so the other hens don't dare mess with the little ones. LOL Let us know how it works out.

Best of luck.

 

[honfor500]

I did with my broody cochin she did great.

 

[~goingcluckcrazy~]

I would make sure that she accepts them I have just had trouble with a hen. I heard you she leave them 2 weeks, and make sure they look the same! One of mine was the odd one out and was not accepted as such.

 

[Bowen Mt Chicken]

I will try and give her some after they hatch, her mother accepts anything and everything, regardless of colour, size or breed and the pen has a lot of different breeds in it, but I will give her a few of the same breed just in case, I will have enough with 35 eggs, including the rumpless araucana's, ancona's, welsummers, barnevelders, brown leghorn and 4 mix breed of her eggs and a silver spangled hamburg rooster we had for a couple of months before my husband got tired cause he kept waking him up early in the morning and we had neighbours, so we had him locked in the garage at night and let him loose when everyone was awake (the neighbours that is, we were already awake), we will see how she does, she was hen raised herself so hopefully that helps, I was just worried cause she is young, I will see how she does after the babies hatch and I can see them better to give her babies that look the same as each other. Thank you

 

[lincolnsilkies]

My Rosie hatched 2 babies i didnt know she was going to go broody so i used the incubator the week before on her other eggs so they hatched a week apart well earlier i put the smallest one out there with her and the other 2 and she took it in with no problem i wish i could put the other 16 out there with her to but i'm sure thats way to many she is being such a good mom to the ones she has!

 

[honfor500]

MY hen didnt care about color or size I put 3 2day old chicks under her the same night that the two Mille Fleur d'uccle eggs hatched that she had been brooding The chicks were 2 Easter Eggers and One Light Brahma.

 

[Bowen Mt Chicken]

Here she is with 1 of her 2 babies, the 3rd one she kept knocking out of the box, it was a bit darker that the 2 she has and a little more noisy, so far she is doing a great job