Ive been debating on purchasing fertilized eggs from the local health food store and trying to hatch them under one of my hens. It's just an experiment, I'm not in need of new chickens but I wouldn't be upset if I had a few more. My question is how do I get my hens to sit on them? All 4 of them seem to take turns sitting on the eggs they lay with 2 out of the 4 being very difficult to persuade to get off the eggs when I come up to get them(the other 2 take moderate convincing). Unfortunately the hens don't like me enough to let me just stick my hand under them to put an egg there; they'd be out of that coop so fast! I don't have an incubator and my hubby would kill me if I got one and then brooded a whole new batch of chicks (electric bill) Should I just put them up there early in the AM and see what happens? Or should I separate my chosen hen entirely for this operation? Thanks!
Incubators take little to no energy to use, trust me. I run mine on a circuit that has no juice to spare (it's hooked to the microwave and I seriously can't run my fan at the same time as microwaving something without blowing a fuse, but the incubator runs and has never caused a problem). If you're looking to get them to sit... If they run out while you take eggs but come back, you may be able to just replace the eggs they were sitting on with the ones you want to hatch, and let that be that. You can try separating one but you may find that she doesn't want to be broody THERE (wherever there is), only where she WAS. I wouldn't buy the eggs until you're sure she'll sit where-ever she is.
