Can I moves eggs from the incubator to under a broody hen??

[asmiles1]

Hey y'all!
I have a broody hen who is faithfully sitting on 6 eggs. When I got hatching eggs, I put 6 under her and 7 in the incubator. Of the 7 in the incubator, only 3 have made it to today (Day 11). The eggs under our mama hen seem to be doing better than the ones in the incubator, so I wanted to give them to our broody hen to hatch and raise all of them herself. Both the set under her and the set in the incubator are on the same day! She is proven broody!

 

[Debbie292d]

We've actually done that and it works fine. We gave her one egg at a time. She pulled each one under herself.

Good luck with your hatch!!

Oh, and welcome to BYC!!

 

[asmiles1]

Thank you so much!

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

Thank you so much!

How’s your broody doing? Any updates on hatch?

 

[pvaldes]

It works only if the eggs had been incubated by a similar amount of time. If not, is calling for troubles.

The problem is that one group of eggs will hatch much before the other, maybe a week before, so the hen can quit the nest and let half of the eggs die. Other hen wait for all eggs to hatch and refuse to leave, so the first chicken could starve and die in the nest; and the hen health will suffer.

 

[asmiles1]

How’s your broody doing? Any updates on hatch?

She did amazing! I put the 3 from the incubator under her totaling 9 eggs. Out of the 9 she hatched 7! All 6 of hers that she had from the beginning and one from the incubator.