Incubating and broody hens

[Clmirabilio92]

I had started incubating hatching eggs that I had bought but out of the 12 only 1 has developed inside of the incubator. I'm not sure whether it's my fault or that the eggs just weren't fertile. But the egg is going to hatch soon, it's on day 14 now. I have a broody hen sitting on 5 developing eggs. When the egg in the incubator hatches at day 21 her eggs will be on day 15. I don't want the poor lone baby in the incubator to be all alone, so my question is can I switch out the 5 eggs under the broody hen for the one that is in the incubator? Will she accept a chick at day 15? Also, should I take it out and put it under her while it's cracking to come out or wait until it hatches to put underneath her at night? Then I would let the broody eggs finish hatching inside of the incubator. Sorry if I made that sound complicated thanks all!

 

[sourland]

She might very well accept the solo chick, but would be very unlikely to accept more chicks six days later.

 

[Clmirabilio92]

She might very well accept the solo chick, but would be very unlikely to accept more chicks six days later.

Yeah I thought that too so I was going to raise the other ones in the brooder after they hatched. Since they would have eachother.

 

[klb25]

I had started incubating hatching eggs that I had bought but out of the 12 only 1 has developed inside of the incubator. I'm not sure whether it's my fault or that the eggs just weren't fertile. But the egg is going to hatch soon, it's on day 14 now. I have a broody hen sitting on 5 developing eggs. When the egg in the incubator hatches at day 21 her eggs will be on day 15. I don't want the poor lone baby in the incubator to be all alone, so my question is can I switch out the 5 eggs under the broody hen for the one that is in the incubator? Will she accept a chick at day 15? Also, should I take it out and put it under her while it's cracking to come out or wait until it hatches to put underneath her at night? Then I would let the broody eggs finish hatching inside of the incubator. Sorry if I made that sound complicated thanks all!

How did this turn out?

I have nearly the exact situation. None of my hens went broody for a year so I got an incubator. On day 7, a hen started to brood. Figures, right?

I'm contemplating putting any hatched incubator chicks under her at night, and putting hers into the incubator for their final week. My goal is to have as few in a brooder as possible, and I have 11 still going in the incubator while she's only on 6-7 (and who knows what the success rate will be for either). But I don't know if she'd accept more chicks after a week so I'm not sure she would raise them all together. She's a first timer so I'm not sure yet how she'll be as a mom.

Sorry that was so convoluted!

 

[SnackMeat]

I've read about a fake vanilla trick when putting chicks under the hen at night to lower rejection rate. It's still a risk that she might kill a chick but at least you're limiting the chances.

As far as the time difference in maturity, you'll probably be fine unless someone has a hard or delayed hatch and is 2-3 days behind and possibly needs an extra couple of days of TLC to be ready to be around other chicks.

You very well might have some chicks with the first hatch that are slow, and some in the later hatch who almost literally hit the ground running (almost literally because there are some I've seen that by 72 hours zip around like The Flash. Can only run, not walk.)

If you do have chicks separated with a slight failure to thrive situation, I would probably read up on immune system effect from mom's poop and what the window is on that. If you have chicks separated for weeks, you still might want to give them access to dirt and mom-poop. However keep in mind coccidiosis and have Corid in hand, or go with medicated feed. I didn't start seeing coccidiosis til week two.