Can you move a chick from 1 hen to another as a egg, and have it accepted in a flock?

[Chickartforever]

Hello guys! I had a weird thought.....I'm thinking of adopting a chick from a friends flock to replace a rooster we gave away... My Q is:Can you move a chick from one hen to another as a egg, and have it accepted in a new flock with out a rooster?

 

[Pork Pie]

Do you mean put an egg from one hen under another for her to hatch? If so then it's commonly done. I have only one hen that goes broody but she has hatched many of my flock that were not her own. A roo makes no difference to integration since the girls have their own hierarchy.

Hope I've understood your question correctly

Cheers

Ct

 

[Chickartforever]

what I meant is I'm thinking of taking an egg from someone elses flock to my flock.....My hens do not have a rooster, and I'm wondering if they can except as an egg a chick from someone else

 

[junebuggena]

People buy hatching eggs to set under broody hens all the time. The hens don't care what they are sitting on. Some hens will even try to brood rocks. As long as the hen is broody, she will sit on it.

 

[appps]

Yes absolutely. That is how I add to my rooster less flock. I buy fertile eggs from somebody else and let my broody hen hatch them or incubate them myself.

You can't just give it to any hen though, you need to wait till you have one trying to hatch her own unhatchable eggs first though and then just put them under her.

The flock can't tell where a chick came from and will treat them all the same.

 

[Chickartforever]

what if there not broody?

 

[junebuggena]

If they aren't broody, then you will need an incubator to hatch the eggs. They don't just spontaneously develop and hatch.

 

[Chickartforever]

I was more on the lines of: egg starts to crack...We go and bring it to my house, stick it under a laying hen and whatch.....

 

[donrae]

I was more on the lines of: egg starts to crack...We go and bring it to my house, stick it under a laying hen and whatch.....

If your hen's not broody, you're going to have a dead chick in pretty short order. If she doesn't actively kill it, she won't have any instincts to nurture or brood it and it will die of neglect. Chickens have to have the proper hormones going to raise babies, those take about 3 weeks of being broody. Sounds like you'd just need to set up a brooder if you want to raise chicks.

 

[junebuggena]

You want to stick a hatching chick under a non-broody hen? Don't even think about it. Way too risky. The hormones that trigger broodiness also trigger the maternal instincts to care for chicks. Without those hormones, she will likely kill the chick. And just because a hen goes broody, is no guarantee of her being the mothering type. Some hens kill their chicks the second they hatch, some are completely clueless when it comes to taking care of chicks. If you really want to add a rooster to your flock, let your friend hatch the eggs, then pick the chicks that you would like. Brood them indoors and integrate them into the flock once they are old enough.