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- #81
That's exactly what I tried to do. Unfortunately I left those dead eggs under the hen for to long hoping they would hatch at day 29!. By then she had already pretty much given up broody ness. And the chicks I had incubated in my bator had no mother. This breed goes broody easily but they can be broken of broodyness even easier.Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you tried to get her to hatch RJF eggs and then she abandoned them. Only after she had given up on that clutch you decided to incubate the eggs you had saved from her. By the time your incubated eggs had hatched, she would have no longer been broody for several weeks. Her drive to raise young had long since passed. In fact, he moment she abandoned the nest her desire and inclination to care for offspring began to rapidly decline.
Your best chance, and hardly a guarantee, would have been to incubate the removed eggs immediately and try and introduce the newly hatched chicks while she was still setting on the eggs you had replaced them with. I don't know as that is an overly successful tactic, but I could be wrong. Someone with more experience pulling the old switcharoo like that could probably speak to success better than I could.
I decided I would do an egg topsy on the dead eggs and realised the eggs had no development at all. So this wasn't the mothers fault. Mostly likely the eggs weren't fertilized or FedEx killed them
![Hmmm :hmm :hmm](/styles/byc-smilies/hmm.png)
Sorry if I sound offended don't worry I'm not
![Big Grin :D :D](/styles/byc-smilies/big_smile.png)
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