Has anybody started eggs in an incubator while waiting for a broody, and then giving the already-started eggs to the chicken to finish?
I've been stockpiling eggs that I want to hatch but the never-ending winter is keeping my girls from going broody (others in my area are having the same problem). A friend is willing to loan me a 'bator but if any of my girls gets so inclined, I'd rather let her/them finish the work. I'm not very good at growing things, lol - just ask my houseplants!
From what I understand, people do that all of the time.
Actually, my broody, who should hopefully
hatch out some chicks tomorrow, is sitting on shipped eggs that sat in the incubator fir the first week.
In the past, i have sat a broody on infertile eggs, and then after a few days, gone in and slid out the eggs one by one and slid shipped chicks under her, one by one. She was the best mama hen ever!
This is exactly what I am doing right now... though my circumstances were a bit different. I have had lots of broodies all spring, I had 2 hens go broody so headed to a breeder I know for hatching eggs... I was expecting a dozen and he gave me 2 dozen! One dozen is from a breed I have been wanting for a few years and his birds are just gorgeous... well, no way my girls were getting a dozen each, so I called on a friend to borrow his incubator...
We have never used an incubator, so DH and I did our best to get it set up right, then put some of the eggs in the incubator and split the rest between the two broody hens. Our plan was to candle on day 10, pull any clears under the broodies and replace them with developing eggs from the incubator. Then any chicks which hatch we planned to divide between the broodies on hatch day.
Well, low and behold we had a 3rd hen go broody the day we gave the other 2 their eggs... we gave her a couple of days to make absolutely sure she was going to stay the course and she has, so the plan is to candle eggs tomorrow evening and give her the ones out of the incubator and let her do her thing.
We love our broodies, but Heckle (hen #3 above) is our 9th one this year, so we are hoping this is it for a while!
x 4
I am now attempting to do just that right now....swap/juggle projects between 2 or 3 broodies and 2 mini-incubators I used with the kids when we did a 4H project (since I'm too cheap to buy a decent incubator as I like the "ease" of brooding with hens).
I'm actually banking on my partial failure based on the typical 50% hatch rate for shipped eggs and incubators...or I am going to have a lot of chicks to figure out what to do with.
So it is something many of us do/attempt to do.
If interested in my current story of what I'm attempting to do....
I started 6 Rhodebar eggs 2 weeks ago split between a first time broody Ms. Marvel (Wyandotte/EE or OEG...my avatar) and my faithful Silkie.
Originally I planned and had an pre-arrangement for Buckeye eggs, but it didn't look like they would be coming at all this season (the breeder was having fertility problems with her Buckeye hatching eggs). I had originally planned to use my faithful Silkie...but she was lingering and not going into a good brood (just teasing me) after having brooded 3 batches (poor girl, who could blame her for taking a bit of vacation time).
However, Ms. Marvel had been showing extreme hormonal broody behavior and was clogging up the main coop and picking fights when dominant hens booted her out, so I moved her to the broody hutch to see if she would settle on a new nest AND be happy...in short she was driving me and the flock nuts.
I hunted around and became intrigued with Rhodebars, so I purchased 6 hatching eggs to start the "refresh" of my flock for this season's brooding hoping to use my Silkie, but contemplating using Ms. Marvel. I ended up giving her just 3 and giving my faithful Silkie 3 as the Silkie had just that day of pick up acted like she would go into a good brood after teasing me for a week, I figured if the Silkie didn't settle I would risk all 6 on Ms. Marvel...but only purchased a total of 6 eggs in case newbie Ms. Marvel quit on me and I had to put all the eggs under the faithful Silkie.
Well, they were both sitting just fine, and I unexpectedly got a lead on my hard to find Buckeye eggs again (which I really wanted this year) so I took a chance it would all work out and went ahead and ordered my Buckeye eggs...which of course took longer to ship than I originally planned...I finally got 16 eggs this Tuesday....Silkie I am sure will stay on a prolonged brood, but she is a small banty, so she got the best 6 Buckeyes (determined by candling to check for solid yolks and attached air cells with good shells)...I then put all 6 of the Rhodebars (at what looks to be all at 2 week development) under Ms. Marvel, my newbie, so she can finish them out as she'd already been on a hormonal brood a couple of weeks before I trusted her with any eggs...so she'll hatch in 1 week. Since she is a first time hen, I'm not willing to risk trying to extend her brood even though she could cover all of the Buckeye eggs.
So then I ask myself, what to do with the rest of those expensive eggs that are sitting on my counter now? (Dozen bought, 16 shipped, 1 cracked, 5 problematic, leaving 10 looking good for hatching). Well, the same day as I placed eggs with the Silkie, I put 4 of the next best Buckeye eggs in my 2 mini-incubators (maximum 3 eggs each) that I've used with moderate success (50% hatch rate)...the idea being since they are shipped eggs, only about 50% will develop because of shipping...and I'll be lucky if 50% develop in those mini-incubators...so if the Silkie's 6 have a 50% rate, since Silkie can only really handle 6 full size eggs well, I will see which ones are developing and place those best 6 under the Silkie for finishing. That's the plan anyway.
However, if to my chagrin, I get lucky and all 10 develop, then I'm hoping another hen will settle into a good brood
soon so the 4 in the incubator will go under a hen to hatch...otherwise I will end up having to attempt a staggered graft with fosters....I doubt my Silkie can handle 10 chicks
(not likely)...or seeing if Ms. Marvel is tolerant enough to handle mixed ages as a newbie (weather will be warmer, but that would be quite an age difference...Hmmm doubtful on that one). This could get interesting....my husband will NOT be thrilled at brooding chicks in the garage again (it creates way too much dust for his nice motorcyle).
Being the scrooge that I am, I'll also recheck the last 5 shipped eggs which were my "problem" eggs that had detached air cells to see if they finally settled and put them under a broody hen (if not, they are in the trash as they will have sat 2 weeks without any brooding).
All to say...the hen doesn't know the difference, and you can swap eggs in an out, often even chicks (with some fostering techniques)...how successfully depends on how good you are with an incubator (I'm not holding my breath on that one as I'm not great) and how tolerant the hen is
.
I do find that if I have a hen sit for at least a week she bonds better with the hatched/fosters...her hormones have really kicked in well. She may mother well, but I find they mother better after the hormones have settled longer.
Lady of McCamley
hatch out some chicks tomorrow, is sitting on shipped eggs that sat in the incubator fir the first week.
