How long............???

[gabby3535]

Hypothetical question..........
If I have a hen who JUST went broody today.......can I buy day-old chicks from Tractor Supply, and pop them under her NOW?
In other words.......is just 1 or 2 or 3 days of being broody "enough time" for her to realize the chicks are hers to mother...............or does
a hen have to sit on eggs (duds!) for 21 days before I can put day-olds under her????
Thanks!

 

[aveca]

Every hen is different..Some will take the babies right in, some will tottaly reject them..It just depends on the hen, hens who have had experiencewith babies usually do pretty good with introduced babies but the younger the babies the better and do it very quietly. I have one hen that I have to watch carefully because she sets eggs so nice, talks to them end perfect broody right up until they hatch, then she freaks out and throws those babies around , shes a horror with new babies, then we have another that when she goes broody, you could stick a bunch under her and she is a tender loving mother, she doesnt care where they come from she will care for them when she is in the throws of broodydom. Last year I hatched some delawares for a freind under the 2 broodys, I would up taking the babies from horror hen and giving them to tender lovin mom and she took them right in, horror hen would have killed them all .weird because she was the prefect broody and wouldnt let anyone near her nest and talked to them and tucked them tenderly under her then at the end went crazy and attacked them when in doubt, have a brooder ready and waiting....be careful also because usually the TSC chicks are sometimes vaccinated and they should be kept away from non vaccinated birds for about 2 weeks..you would have to ask TSC if they had any vaccines..
those babies even thou they are from TSC know exactly what to do, they run right under the hen and get lost in the feathers of the broody its really cute....when it works but you just never know