My broody has some serama eggs

[Jster]

She's a good girl, very determined, and I think she'll follow through. But we've been wondering about her sitting on both serama eggs and full-size chicken eggs, about the different incubation periods, about whether she'll be gentle enough, etc. Any thoughts/suggestions/words of wisdom?

 

[Akane]

Bantams will hatch quail eggs. If they are good mothers they won't crush smaller eggs. If they are bad mothers the eggs will get damaged irregardless of size. I don't know about the difference in hatch dates. I know some have said their hens sat for days waiting for the last chick to hatch and others hopped off half way through hatch day to lead away the chicks they had so far. It depends on the hen. Would be good to have an incubator ready just in case.

 

[Southernbelle]

Once the babies start hatching, she'll only sit on the nest for about 24 more hours to give everyone a chance to hatch then she'll abandon the nest, figuring the rest are duds. I've never hatched Seremas, so I didn't know they had a different incubation length, but I think you need to arrange it so the hatch dates will be within 24 hours of each other.

I've never set bantys and standards together under a broody, so I don't know if the big eggs will keep her from getting close enough to the bitty eggs. Hopefully someone will chime in with a sucess story.

A broody will be gentle with her eggs - I love broodies and I'm completely awed by them! I seperate my broodies from the rest of the flock to keep the other hens from disturbing the nest - I don't trust them to be gentle.

 

[amainehenhouse]

Seramas ahtch at 19 days and full size eggs at 21 days, so there is a two day period between hatchings. If your broody is a good mother hen, watch her closely and have an incubator ready for the seramas. then wait for others full size to hatch, when hatched you can put the seramas back with mother hen.

 

[austinhart123]

if she just started, take the serama eggs away and let her sit on the large eggs for two days, then put the serama eggs under

 

[Jster]

Thanks all for the suggestions! We set them on Tuesday, and only after that did I think about the possibility of different incubation periods. So, we just have to deal with it. We also haven't moved her (yet?), because she's the total alpha chicken and I'm sure will keep all the other chickens under control. Though the nest box isn't on the ground, so we'll have to cross that bridge. We do have a smaller coop we plan to use if we decide to move her either before or after the hatch. I just didn't want to move her and risk her giving up on being broody...does that happen, or would it be good to move her? Ah, decisions.