To me, there are two reasons to let Mama raise the chicks with the flock if you have enough room. The chicks will pick up immunities they might need when they join the flock and Mama takes care of a lot of the integration issues. On the pecking order stuff they are on their own when she weans them, but integration is not normally problem.
MomtoSyd&Emma :
I cant figure the whole egg thing out, I know to put them under her when its dark, but I was reading and some people say to place the eggs pointy side up in a egg holder for 24 hrs some say round side up for 24 hrs some say dont bother? OMG I am so confused lol
I think you are mixing up incubators, broody hens, and storing eggs for a while before you set them. It can get complicated but it does not have to, especially with a broody.
If you are going to keep the eggs for a day or two before you put them under the hen, you probably should store them pointy side down. If you set them the day you get them, I don't think it makes any real difference. Just try to not shake the eggs up when you transport them.
The broody hen does not care how you place them. Just lay them flat in the nest. She will rearrange them anyway. I have never waited until after dark to give a broody her eggs. I just toss her off the nest, put the eggs in, and let her take over. She will probably take offf or a bite and her daily constitutional, but she might stay there, watch you, or even attack you to defend her nest. That would be a good broody with strong instincts. If her broody instincts are so weak that tossing her off the nest to give her eggs will break her, you are probably in for a rough incubation period anyway. You can aways do it at night if you want to. There is nothing wrong with that.
Some people isolate their broodies. Some don't. People are successful both ways. People have bad experiences both ways. Our circumstances and the personalities of our chickens are so different there is seldom one answer to anything that is right for everyone.
Assuming you choose not to isolate your broody, what I suggest is how I did it growing up many decades ago. When you get the eggs, mark them with a magic marker or sharpie. I put a couple of circles around the egg, one the short way and one the long way. The goal is that you will be able to tell at a glance which eggs are for hatching and which eggs other hens have laid with her that day. I'd toss the hen off the nest, take away any eggs that were already there, then place the marked eggs in her nest. I would then leave. Then, every evening, say after 5:00 p.m. but before dark, I'd toss her off the nest. She would usually take a break, grab a bite to eat, get some water, maybe take a constitutional or a dust bath, then go back to the nest. I would collect any eggs that had been laid that day and add them to the eggs to be eaten bucket. If you collect them at the end of the day, there is nothing wrong with them.
Are there risks with this approach? Of course. There are risks to everything we do. But it can be this simple. This is how I did it from the time I was old enough to collect eggs until I left home a couple of days after my 18th birthday. I never had a problem with this approach.
And it is 20-22 days for hatch right?
Yes, about 21 days for chicken eggs from the day incubation starts. A hatch is not instantaneous. The egg pips. The chick rests. The egg zips. After a bit, the chick pushes the two halves apart and comes out, wet and weak. The chick dries out. Some are earlier or later than others. When it is time, the hen takes the chicks off the nest. Unless you have something really strange, she does not need your help to do that. Mother hens have been doing that for thousands of years.
