My broody hen and my friend's 2 week old chicks

[ehoneybee]

Right now our friendliest hen is sitting on a clutch of 2 eggs. Yesterday I had to take 2 she was sitting on. It didn't occur to me until today that she's trying to start a family . My friend bought day old chicks that are now 2 weeks old. Would the broody hen take them at that age? I feel like we should take advantage of this. Should I just get fertilized eggs? We can't really handed anymore chickens, though.

 

[PachecoPeeps]

How long has your broody been sitting for? If its been over 2 weeks you would want to give her chicks instead of eggs so she is not sitting for 3 more weeks. If you want to give her babies to adopt she needs to have been sitting for awhile and be actually committed. The closer she is to 21 days usually the more successful the adoption will be. You would want to use 1-3 day old chicks and sneak them under her during the night.

If she hasn't sat for awhile you can give her fertilized eggs to hatch but if you don't want any more chicks you need to break her from being broody or she will sit and end up getting sick. If you search here on the forums you can see different ways to break a broody.

Good luck with whatever your decision is.

 

[The Phantom]

Some broodys will reject chicks that aren't theirs.

 

[PachecoPeeps]

Some broodys will reject chicks that aren't theirs.

Good point! If you get chicks plan on having a brooder ready in case she rejects them.

 

[ehoneybee]

How long has your broody been sitting for? If its been over 2 weeks you would want to give her chicks instead of eggs so she is not sitting for 3 more weeks. If you want to give her babies to adopt she needs to have been sitting for awhile and be actually committed. The closer she is to 21 days usually the more successful the adoption will be. You would want to use 1-3 day old chicks and sneak them under her during the night.

If she hasn't sat for awhile you can give her fertilized eggs to hatch but if you don't want any more chicks you need to break her from being broody or she will sit and end up getting sick. If you search here on the forums you can see different ways to break a broody.

Good luck with whatever your decision is.

How will she get sick? Don't they get up to poo and eat/drink and then go back until 21 days is up and the eggs hatch? So, I can't get away with giving her 2 weekers in 3 weeks? She's only been broody for 2 days.

 

[PachecoPeeps]

How will she get sick? Don't they get up to poo and eat/drink and then go back until 21 days is up and the eggs hatch? So, I can't get away with giving her 2 weekers in 3 weeks? She's only been broody for 2 days.

They can get sick and die if they sit too long without eventually hatching chicks or getting adopted chicks put under them. Broodys lose a lot of weight when they are sitting so it can get dangerous.

You can try and give her 2 week old chicks in a couple of weeks but the older the chicks the less successful the adoption tends to be.

Since she has only sat for 2 days you could try and find fertilized eggs to give her instead if you want to give her the opportunity to be a mom.

 

[ehoneybee]

They can get sick and die if they sit too long without eventually hatching chicks or getting adopted chicks put under them. Broodys lose a lot of weight when they are sitting so it can get dangerous.

You can try and give her 2 week old chicks in a couple of weeks but the older the chicks the less successful the adoption tends to be.

Since she has only sat for 2 days you could try and find fertilized eggs to give her instead if you want to give her the opportunity to be a mom.

Just realized this won't make sense because they're 2 weeks old now so they'll be 4 weeks and then almost ready to be put in the coop anyway.

 

[ehoneybee]

...and she's up and not going back to the eggs. I think it just took her awhile to lay an egg. I think she only lays a few times a month. Darn, I was kind of getting excited :/

 

[ehoneybee]

Ok I don't know what's up. She's just lying down in the coop alone. Is she broody?