Need advise! Broody hen, incubator hatched chicks

[carolinasculpture]

Hi! I have a broody and was planning to slip incubator hatched chicks under her. They were supposed to hatch Wed or Thurs, but one hatched yesterday. They others have not shown signs of hatching yet. If I put the early one under the hen now (tonight), will the broody stay put until the others hatch? Should I put the unhatched eggs under her with the hatchling? Will the chick be fine with mom after she/she has been with people? Thanks!

 

[GitaBooks]

Congrats on the babies!

I've introduced incubator hatched chicks to my momma hens so many times I can't count. The only time the momma doesn't except them is if she naturally isn't a very good mother. You can put the hatching eggs under her or just wait. Hen's with eggs under them will generally stay on the nest 1-2 days with the chick, though the chick may fall or climb out and get lost if it gets bored. I've even moved hens to their broody pen with one chick and introduced others later without a problem. Just make sure that the new chicks are strong enough to crawl under the hen as even in a small cage a newly hatched chick may not be able to move a couple feet to get to a mother and will freeze.

Best of luck!

 

[Clodill4rel]

Hello I was reading in this thread and I’m curious about something…. I hatched 4 chicks they are a day old and I have a wonderful broody mama sitting on 4 but they are two weeks behind these babies….. can I put these chicks under her and leave the other eggs? Will she remain broody on the eggs that are roughly 10-12 days? While these ones hang out there with her…. Any thoughts for me? I’d rather her hatch them honestly she’s such a great mama but I was thinking I might have to bring them inside n incubate them due to them being so much later.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Hello I was reading in this thread and I’m curious about something…. I hated 4 chicks they are a day old and I have a wonderful broody mama sitting on 4 but they are two weeks behind these babies….. can I put these chicks under her and leave the other eggs? Will she remain broody on the eggs that are roughly 10-12 days? While these ones hang out there with her…. Any thoughts for me? I’d rather her hatch them honestly she’s such a great mama but I was thinking I might have to bring them inside n incubate them due to them being so much later.

From everything I have I learned once a baby is born the longest she will stay is 48 hours
I wouldn’t put the babies under her unless you are ready to move the eggs to an incubator
If they were only a day or two apart from hatching it would be fine to try

 

[Clodill4rel]

From everything I have I learned once a baby is born the longest she will stay is 48 hours
I wouldn’t put the babies under her unless you are ready to move the eggs to an incubator
If they were only a day or two apart from hatching it would be fine to try

We’re keeping a close eye on them we did move them with her lastnight and she is loving on them teaching them all to drink and eat perfectly. She is also still maintaining her broodiness. We are prepared if she gets up but I actually am hopeful she may continue to sit there. Last time we gave her chicks and she hatched her own she stayed in the nest for 5 weeks….. although all the eggs eventually hatched she sat there for longer than we thought was going to happen. We will just wait n check on her a few times a day. She’s so wonderful let’s us play with the chicks and everything. We actually let sprinkles our other extremely friendly spring hatched hen in with her and sprinkles went n cuddled like she was going to help. Kiwi totally let her too. They actually both hangout and when kiwi would get up to get food n water n go to the bathroom sprinkles would hope on the eggs. Now there are the chicks and sprinkles totally acted like a chick trying to hangout with kiwi n the babies. No bad behavior at all they might both raise them all together how cool would that be !

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

As long as you are ready to help if she does leave it should all work out. Glad she is loving her new babies

 

[Clodill4rel]

From everything I have I learned once a baby is born the longest she will stay is 48 hours
I wouldn’t put the babies under her unless you are ready to move the eggs to an incubator
If they were only a day or two apart from hatching it would be fine to try

As long as you are ready to help if she does leave it should all work out. Glad she is loving her new babies

Hahahahah I’ll be checking every two hours lmao I want the four she’s sitting on two are sprinkles with fly by night one is kiwis with same ROO and the other is a naked neck with sugar nice both black photos below Here are their pics.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Beautiful