Introduced pullets to brooding want to be mama... bad idea?

[LiveInBliss]

HI All,

So I too have a brooding buff HOWEVER I do not have a rooster. I decided to use my human intervention skills to purchase brand new pullets and sneak them under the Buff in the middle of the night so she was to find her "babies" when she woke up. She did but doesn't seem too interested. I left them be from about 3am-6am then went out to check on them. All babies were happy but she was still her brooding mode and didn't really care too much that they were there. Then I moved her around a bit to make sure babies were ok..

Did I totally mess up bringing them in? About 7am I figured everyone needed food/water so I got out the portable play pen and put babies and buff in there with heat lamp (outside)...Buff stayed for about 10 minutes but then jumped out, took a mud bath and went straight back to her nesting box to brood.

Will babies be warm enough out there under the lamp without her? Should I put them back in the nesting box with her until she likes them?

So lost. HELP!

Thank you!

 

[aart]

Oh Boy!
I assume chicks were day olds?

I suggest you post this in the Broody Hen thread might get quicker answers, lots of veteran broody managers there too.

 

[jlmissouri]

A broody hen will usually stay on the nest for another day after chicks start to hatch. That gives the chicks that have not hatched time, otherwise they will die if she abandones the nest to care for the hatched chicks. I introduce chicks at night under a broody hen, it depends on the hen how well it will work. The hen not killing the chicks is a good sign.

Young chicks can go a day without food or water. That gives their siblings time to hatch and that is why chicks can be shipped and not die.