Broody Hen with no eggs, can I give her store bought?

[RuralChick83]

I have a hen that went broody. Problem is she is not very high on the pecking order and the other hens kept pushing her off to lay their eggs. She kept switching between 2 nests. I eventually created a nesting area just for her and put some eggs under her. I have been trying to candle them, but my husband lost my good flashlight and I have been using crappy flashlights to look. One of the brown eggs looked promising, but I could not check any of the green eggs. Today, I saw that the brown egg became a dud. Not sure if any of the green eggs have chicks or at what stage. Should I stop her broodiness now or is it possible to buy chicks from a store and put under her?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Can you use the light on your phone? Do you have a rooster?

 

[BDutch]

I would wait 3 weeks and see what will happen. I presume you have a rooster and there is a good chance the eggs are fertile.

Store bought eggs rarely are. Unless you can buy the more expensive Demeter eggs at an organic grocery store. But adding eggs later in the process gets problematic when the first -green eggs- hatch. The broody will abandon the other eggs after 2-3 days and leaves the eggs to die.

It's no problem if a broody only hatches 1 or 2 eggs. Bc they/he/she have a mother, the chick(s) don't need more siblings.