Chick questions

[Mummytomany]

Hi I have two silkies which both went broody at the same time. I currently only have hens but a friend gave me some fertile eggs which I popped under them. I noticed my other three chickens have been sitting on top of the silkie which is in their normal nesting box and laying their egg on top of her. I candled all the eggs on day 7 so I could mark them and remove the infertile eggs from my chicken. It looked like there was development in two and was unsure about the other silkie so my friend popped another few eggs under each as I didn’t want the silkies to just keep sitting and end up with no chicks. So a few questions…
1. Should I keep removing the infertile eggs from my other 3 chickens?
2. What will happen if any chicks hatch from the first eggs that went under? Will they stay sitting on the other eggs? There is a 5 day gap I think
3. If and when they hatch will they be ok with my other 3 chickens and 6 runner ducks which share the run?
4. The size holes in the chicken wire is not small enough to stop a chick going through - will the chicks stay with their mum or just wander through the holes of the chicken wire (we have foxes and cats)

Thanks!

 

[Kiki]

1. Yes.
2. They may get up off the eggs once the first once hatches. Do you have an incubator ready? Do not add any more eggs.
3. Probably not. I'd build another area for the sitting hen now and move her to it so they others don't force her off the nest.
4. Build a chick proof area before they hatch.

 

[NatJ]

I'd build another area for the sitting hen now and move her to it so they others don't force her off the nest.

Alternate strategy: move the other hens and leave the broodies where they are.
Either way can work.

With two broody silkies, and three other hens, I don't know which group would be easier to move.

2. What will happen if any chicks hatch from the first eggs that went under? Will they stay sitting on the other eggs? There is a 5 day gap I think

When people have just one hen and two ages of eggs, the hen is stuck making a choice: she can get off the nest to care for the chicks, or she can keep sitting on the eggs, but she cannot do both. It seems common that hens choose to care for the chicks and leave the eggs, although not every hen makes that choice.

Since you have two hens, maybe you can split them up, so each hen ends up with one group of chicks.

If you decide to move the hens now, you can move them into separate pens, and give the younger eggs to one hen and the older eggs to the other.

Or you could wait until the first chicks hatch, then move those chicks with one hen to another pen, and hope the other hen keeps sitting until the later eggs hatch.

If you leave them the way they are now, they may divide the jobs themselves, with one hen taking the first chicks and the other staying on the eggs. Or they may both want the chicks and leave the eggs, or want the eggs and ignore the chicks.