Intro&Q: broody hen but we currently have eggs in the incubator

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St_Gall

St_Gall

Chirping
Jul 22, 2022
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Hello! New here and new to chickens. We have eggs in the incubator (day 8) but we also have an Australorp who is showing signs of going broody. Has anyone successfully made the switch to a broody bird?

I was thinking of waiting until they hatch and then putting them under her while she's sleeping. She's still roosting at night. They are free range and she's been laying eggs in the yard, and we're going to see if she'll settle for a coop just for her. Thoughts? Advice?

Here's the rest of our story:
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? Just in June we got adults, and have since added some pullets. We also have eggs incubating.

(2) How many chickens do you have right now? 11. Two roosters, five laying hens, four pullets.

(3) What breeds do you have? Australorps, Isa browns, a Delaware, and sussex.

(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens? The management? 😂 I really enjoy figuring out what works and what doesn't.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies? I love to cook, read, and we're in church a lot.

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. ** We are two families living in community and starting a homestead. I have three kiddos, the other family has six, do it's a total of 13 people and yes I know we're nuts. 😁😁

(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community? :D
 
Welcome to BYC!
I put chicks under my broodies pretty often. I put the hatched chicks along with their egg shells.
Be sure your hen has been sitting consistently for at least two weeks. Be sure she is in a safe place for the future chicks. Put some fake eggs under her now, and remove them when you put the chicks under her.
Most people do this at night. I don't worry about that. My hens are either stupid, or they are just very willing to adopt, because they've seen me take chicks out of a box and place them under them.
Good luck with your hatch!
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
St_Gall said:
Has anyone successfully made the switch to a broody bird?
Click to expand...
Yes. And ironically enough, she is also an Australorp, Astrid. I had purchased hatching eggs for a bantam that broke when I moved her so the eggs were started in an incubator.
Astrid was showing signs of tipping over to the dark side so I moved her to the maternity ward nest. She locked on in 3 days and I slipped the eggs under her on day 7. She hatched 5 out of 6.
IMG_20210814_181712208_HDR.jpg
 
Welcome! I’ve had good luck moving eggs to the broody hen on day 18. She will start hearing them in the shell and talking to them so I figure maybe that can jump start their bond. Your hen will probably do really well with the eggs/chicks even though they are 8 days ahead of her schedule.

I’ve only had one failure and it was with a 5-day sitting hen, she didn’t realize she needed to stay put at pipping time and she left for her daily exercise. That was totally my fault but it was easily fixed, I was trying to share eggs between 2 hens so instead one mama got 10 eggs and I put new eggs in the incubator for hen #2. She actually just got them today so they will be hatching this weekend 🤞
 

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