More than likely it will work. This is how I do it, and I have never had a fail.
Get the chicks, two weeks from no will be perfect. Make sure every chick has a drink of water, dip their beaks. Then wait for dark. Now this part sound a heartless, but they are tougher than you think. You want to let the chicks sit out a bit and get chilled. People often think that if it fails it is the mothers fault, but it is like any relationship, the chicks have to take to it too. They need to want a warm space, and stick like burs to it.
Wait till all the others have roosted, bring the chicks down, they should be peeping madly. Now, using the dimmest light possible, pick up a chick and either place it under her, or just on top of her back, often times they will just disappear, she will start to shift around as they move under her, her cluck will often change. Once you get all the chicks under, you have to do the hardest part. Close up the coop, and leave them alone. If one crawls out, she may peck at it, to make it go back under, do not interfere. If your nest is small, you might want put a barricade up so that a chick can't fall out of the nest.
The next morning, remove the barricade if you have one. Make sure there is clean bedding on the floor of the coop. There is no need to make a nest for her, I have tried numerous times, only to have her walk right by it, and create something else. Then set up some feed, and water some where near by but not in the nest. No need to get them out of the nest, if she is nesting up above. She will get them down. Do NOT MOVE her to a better nest. Been there done that, and she left it and went back to the one she wanted.
And that should be it, in a day or so, depending on the weather, she will bring them out to the other girls, she will dust bath, fluff up bigger than a beach ball, and the others will think, what are those strange things around her, but leave them alone.
If you watch, she will generally place herself between the chicks and the layers. If you let them out to free range, she won't hang with the layers, but she is still part of the flock.
At about 3-4 weeks, I have had success in placing a wide board at the level of the roosts. She will get them up there, and they will continue to snuggle with her for some time. One day, she will just forget they are her chicks, but they will be part of the flock.
Nothing is as much fun as a hen and chicks.Good luck.
PS - you might loose a chick this way, but sometimes a chick just fails to thrive, so you might have lost them anyway.
Mrs K
