Can you trick a broody hen?

[Chicken101-07]

Possibly an ignorant question but can you trick a broody hen?I have a hen that was trying to go broody,I had to break her because I have no chick feed and pretty sure TSC is closed right now and will remain closed for more than 21 days because I highly doubt the virus is gonna be controlled in the 21 days that takes chicks to hatch.either way if I was to leave one go broody,could I entirely change the eggs she is sitting on?A friend will give me some eggs from his hens when one of my hens go broody,in order to do that I would have to throw out the eggs from my hens so she can sit on the other ones,is there any way that hens can tell when they are sitting on other hens eggs or count how many there were before?thanks for your answers and stay safe.

 

[RhodeIslandRedBreeder]

No I have done it before. I didn’t have time to get to the feed store( because of work) and I gave her about 3-4 sets of eggs. Then another time I took the eggs and stuck golf balls under her until I could get my eggs in. This was years ago though. Back when I still raised gamefowl.

 

[Painted Calls]

My broodies will steal other hen's eggs. When they are truly broody, they will brood anything even remotely egg shaped. You should be perfectly fine!

 

[JaeG]

As long as she isn't too far into her broody cycle she should sit on a new batch just fine. My girls usually spend 4-6 weeks sitting on nothing, hoping something will hatch, so as long as she's no further than a week, 2 weeks tops, into sitting she should keep sitting until chicks hatch. Often you can put a new egg in front of them and they will happily roll it under themselves to join the pile.

 

[chickens really]

All feed stores here are open. You definitely can trick hens. I have two Broody hens on eggs and two in my incubator. I'm giving one the two due soon and the other the 6 they have been sharing. They don't care.