Need advice on broody please

[marti77]

I've set some eggs under a broody and in an incubator simultaneously. The ones under the broody were not hatching in time and when I checked on her this morning while she left nest for a feed I found a dead chick that was half peeled out of his shell. I quickly took the rest of the egfs away from her and set them in the incubator. I just would like to know if I should try to put the hatched chicks under her or she's likely to kill them as well. (To be honest I lost my trust in her and I think best might be to cull her as she's not the broody I wanted. )

 

[sourland]

Has she ever raised chicks before? If so I would trust her with the chicks.

 

[marti77]

No, she's apprently quite young. Someone's offered her to me for free and when I brought her home realised she had lice and possibly leg mites... So had been a bit suspicious since.

I don't want to cull her if she could at least raise thr chicks but rather worried about putting the healty chicks under her and finding them dead in the morning.

 

[bobbi-j]

It could be the chick died of another cause. Maybe it wasn't healthy to begin with. I would give her a chance to raise the healthy ones. Maybe give her a few of them instead of all of them?

 

[marti77]

If I do that do you think I'll be able to put the rest in as well a night or two later?

 

[bobbi-j]

Hmm, I can't answer that as I've never tried it. How many chicks do you have? Oh, and how long since you took her eggs away? That may affect whether or not she'll accept any chicks. Hopefully someone with more of this type of experience will chime in.

 

[bobbi-j]

OK I just reread your first post. Right or wrong, here's what I would do. I'd stick a few eggs back under her - not necessarily the ones you're hatching, just something so she thinks she's still incubating. Then I would wait until after dark, remove some of the eggs and skip some babies under her. A broody will usually stay on the nest a day or two after hatching start to make sure all the eggs that are going to hatch, will. So, if all goes well with the first chicks you give her, you can maybe remove the rest of the eggs and slip some more babies under her. I can't guarantee that it would work, but that's what I would do.

 

[marti77]

She's currently sitting on 3 dummy eggs, I have 7 chicks that have been hatching since Tuesday evening really. (For some reason the ones under the hen were late and seem to be in different stages). Still have 3 eggs in the bator that haven't even pipped yet...

 

[marti77]

And thank you so much for the quick help...

 

[bobbi-j]

I'd be interested in knowing how it turns out.