Is she broody & how to integrate?

[Oldpony]

Hello, I bought an araucana (sold as but is Easter egger) hen and the owner threw in three eggs that are very likely fertilized (I was just going to eat them) and I had the eggs in the same container as the hen and she tucked them under herself and is laying on them on our car ride home! Does this mean she is broody? I am not opposed to letting her try to hatch something but am new to chickens and had a temporary set up planned for her in a separate cage from the main coop and run for during the isolation phase and while she acclimates to the other hens and rooster. I don’t want to have to keep her or chicks separate long term but had read if the hen hatches the eggs herself the others will leave the chicks alone? I don’t know if this is true. The others are three Easter egger pullets that are extremely docile and gentle. I have never seen them peck eachother. There were zero issues when they met my similarly docile blue australorp roo. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

First...welcome to BYC. I hope you have a great time on the forum.

As to your question...well....it's a possibility. The only way to know is if you put her in her nest cage tonight, with the eggs under her, and she stays there all day tomorrow, and the next, and the next, for 3 weeks, only getting up to eat/drink/poo for about 20 minutes a day.

As to integration...that will be a little trickier with this hen as she has never been in this flock before. Broody hens have to re-integrate after being separated for 3 weeks in broody isolation (the best situation to get a good hatch), so there's that.

It will depend on your other hens. If she sticks it out and gets chicks, I would wait until the chicks are 2 weeks old, meaning fully feathered and fleet of foot, before I tried to introduce....and watch very carefully.

It would be a good idea to have them sharing a fence so they could see each other for those 2 weeks after the chicks hatch.

You don't want shared fence until she gets out of health isolation, though.

Anyway, step number one is to see if she actually stays the course, then if the eggs hatch. Then you can deal with integration.

Good luck with your new acquire

LofMc