first time hatching with broody

[Nariah01]

We were considering adding some new chicks this year to our current flock of eight and a few days ago I had two hens go broody and am thinking why not get some eggs and let them do the work. However before I do this I had some questions I wanted to ask and just get some suggestions. So even though I have two broody right now I will probably only give eggs to one, the other one is not super serious, she leaves the box for several hours each day. But my Salmon Fav. is serious about it and has been for three/four days.

We have two ground floor nest boxes, she has claimed one for herself. Would it be ok to just let her stay in that box with the rest of the flock? I found some mix breed fertile eggs near me that I could get for her do I need to do anything prior to giving them to her? Or can I just get them and stick them under her?

I guess I am just looking for advice, support and all of that from more experienced chicken owners. We have had this flock for a year and we really like having them and it would be great to let the chickens raise our next generation.

Thanks in advance,
Ashley

 

[LRH97]

I always take advantage of a broody hen. It's so much easier on you as the owner and there's nothing like seeing a doting momma hen walking around with a line of chicks following her! I would not give eggs to the undecided hen yet. If she hasn't been on the nest for at lease two days, I wouldn't risk wasting the eggs. The Faverolle sounds like she's ready to go. Some people let their hens hatch and raise the chicks with the rest of the flock. I have always opted to let her do that separately. I just think it reduces stress on her and guarantees the safety of the chicks when they hatch. I have a Wyandotte hen that just hatched out babies a couple of days ago. I let her incubate the eggs in the coop with everyone else. I got her a nice ground-level box and put her in a far corner of the coop and she did fine with that. The rest of the flock behaved themselves quite well too. When the babies hatched, I moved her to her own space. Call me paranoid, but I don't like to risk the chicks getting trampled or something else. If you let her set in the coop, put a star on each of the fertile eggs with a pencil so you know which ones are the ones she's incubating. I had a few extra eggs under my broody hen. Evidently one of the other girls thought momma hen's nest looked more inviting than the others. You'll want to check on that daily if you leave her in the coop. You don't want eggs at different stages of development, so you'll want to pull any extra eggs that might have found their way under the hen. Once you obtain your fertile eggs, just stick them under. She'll have no problem with it.

Best of luck to you and your hen! If you have anymore questions, never hesitate to ask!