First Time Broody! Advice Please....

If you keep food and water where it has always been, she'll get up roughly once a day on her own to eat, drink, defecate, stretch and dust bathe.
The amount of time she stays off of the eggs will depend on ambient temperature and the stage the eggs are at. If it is hot, she may stay off an hour or more. If it is cold, she may only stay off 15 minutes.
When hatching is imminent, she'll likely stay on throughout to retain humidity.
They don't always come off every day. I urge ignoring advice to force them to get off to eat and drink. They know more about what they're doing than any of us.
I'd use proper food and water containers meant for poultry. A bowl can easily be overturned.
 
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I wouldn't use 4 month cockerels for good fertility - or expect it from them - so you may want to swap the eggs in the incubator with those under the hen. I really don't want to steer you wrong.
What breed were the cockerels and hens?
the cockerels were 1 EE, 1 BR, 2 BO, and 1BA
the 4 eggs I left are 2 EE and 2 silkie

the eggs I hatched were 1 EE and 1 silkie.....BO and WS cockerels. all the eggs due saturday are silkie eggs with these 2 cockerels. the EE chick is very large and definitely from BO cockerel. the silkie cross is black, looks more silkie but has 1 bad leg. I chose not to cull the silkie at hatch because I did not know how long I could safely brood the EE chick with my quail and did not want to risk a lone chick.
 
Put quail eggs under her!
that thought crossed my mind as well. I’ve got 60 quail eggs arriving that will be due at same time as the 4 eggs she’s on. I could switch them out if not fertile and/or give her some of the chicks if hatch not successful.
 
This is my broody hutch. I put crumbles in a dish and a small waterer in the hutch. The hutch is in an enclosure.
IMG_3763.JPG
 
that thought crossed my mind as well. I’ve got 60 quail eggs arriving that will be due at same time as the 4 eggs she’s on. I could switch them out if not fertile and/or give her some of the chicks if hatch not successful.

Sounds like the best option to me, other than the quail being soooo tiny when they hatch. You could probably even get by with giving her quail you hatch after they are 4-5 days old. They would still be tiny for her and they would be good an mobile by then.

The other option (probably not the most favorable, but still an option) is giving her a few of the chicks that hatch this weekend in the incubator, but waiting a couple days to do it. But if you did that, you would have to remove all eggs, so she would start tending to the chicks, and not stay glued to the eggs. But if she rejected the chicks, and you took the eggs, then she would be left with nothing.

As to feed and water -- I wait until the last couple of days before I suspect some hatching, then I provide feed and water closer to the broody that she can claim as theirs, and keep the others away for a week or two, until she decides to integrate them. I don't usually block them completely off, unless I have an aggressive sister, or other broodies trying to steal the chicks. I now have 3 broodies that shared a nest, I gave them 3 chicks and they are all 3 raising the 3 chicks. lol
 
haven’t candled eggs under broody yet but today should be day 12. I thought I had originally marked 4 eggs, but around day 6 there were only 3. This morning while momma was off the nest tending to herself, someone ate one of the eggs. I found only 2 and some remnants of yolk!! This afternoon momma hen turned into 2 momma hens!!! my buff silkie was sitting right beside her!!! soooooo I collected all the unmarked eggs and placed 1 remaining marked egg under each silkie. I have a guy interested in taking some of the EEs on Sunday (including the one I believe to have eaten the other egg) in return for some cornishx close to butcher age. Hopefully I can move the remaining christmas pullet to the larger coop and get the little coop ready for new babies!! Then I can figure out how to give them new babies in case neither of the 2 remaining eggs hatch!
 

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