Ok I don't know what to do this time.

[chickenlady08]

Ok..... this is not a dilemma but I had a broody hatch out 2 babies in April. Another girl is broody now and so far has hatched out 1 baby. And guess what..... Yep you guessed it, I have not 1 but 3 new broody hens. I planned on getting 6 Buff Orpington to put under the 2nd hen that has hatched out 1 little babe last Thursday. Now what I would like to know is that can I trick them and put the babies under the 3 newest hens to go broody. Will her body know it is not possible to have done this so fast? Will it hurt them or should I just let them lay on what they each have which is probably close to over a dozen eggs or more. Oh and the BO will hopefully be in on Friday.

Please help totally confused and stressed out.

thanks

 

[valreegrl]

I can't say exactly what will happen with yours, but this is what happened with mine in this situation.

I have eggs in the bator, on day 15. And of course, my frizzle decided to go broody. So I took two out and put them under her
just to try. She sat for the rest of the day and that night, but the next day she left the eggs. I thought she would go back to them, but here
my other hen that is in with her decided to sit on them! I thought....wonderful!

But not wonderful, because that night they were both roosting and nobody was sitting

I took the eggs back and put them in the bator. Too risky. Now, both are sitting again! It's always a crap shot in my opinion when dealing with first timers.

 

[pgpoultry]

Make sure that the new hens are VERY broody (sit all night and squawk loudly when raised), then give them eggs to hatch . They have to start some time and if you use eggs from your own hens you won't feel too bad if they do not do a great job the first time.
My two first timer Brahmas accepted eggs at day 12 from the incubator and hatched about 60%.....so not bad for rookies.

Good Luck,
Sandie

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Honestly, I've never had an issue putting chicks under a hen.

I do it at night so that the hen and chicks get to hear each other all night. They "bond" with each other. Be sure to put the youngest chicks underneath her.

I've had hens that are broody 1 day, and I have had chicks hatch out. So, I put them under her. She's as happy as a kid at Christmas. Works for me! She doesn't seem to realize it and will still sit hard for me next year (the entire 21 days if needed).

 

[chickenlady08]

Ok so I got 6 babies on Friday and put them in a brooder til last nite. My son and I put them under the hen and they all snuggled up under "Momma" and I thought that it was a done deal. Well this morning Momma and the original baby that is already a week old were on one side and the 6 little BO were on the other side snuggled against each other. It is quite warm here so they were at all cold. They are inside my garage and the doors are closed at night.

I took them out and as I was doing that the Momma tried to peck each baby. Does this mean that she won't ever accept them?

 

[The Sheriff]

Quote:
Same thing happened to me. I bought my broody silkie two day-olds from the feedstore. She's been sitting on a clear eggs for weeks. Put the babies under her at night and she snuggled them up. She loved them all morning but after a few hours she kicked them out of the nest box and pecked at them when they tried to get back in. I took them away and advertised them on Craigslist and a nice lady picked them up today. So Blue Mama is back in the nestbox sitting on air! Go figure.

 

[pgpoultry]

Hens vary a lot as to what they will accept, and I have found that some don't accept chicks that they have not hatched out. This id not constant in successive hatches from a hen, sometimes she accepts, sometimes she doesn't, so I don't think there are any hard and fast rules,

Sandie

 

[chickenlady08]

I still have my other 3 broody hens in the coop. I really don't have a safe place for the babies and the hens to go right now. I bought a big dog house / dog pen combo (it is big enough for me to stand up completely in) and I was going to use that for my broody hen coop, well I have some hens with injuries from roosters (2 BR, 1 SSH and then a Delaware that just got back from the vet she was an internal layer and had to have surgery to remove all the eggs that had just dropped into her abdomen. The mass of eggs weighed 2 lbs btw) So I don't have room for 3 more broody hens to go right now. My husband won't let me use the garage anymore. Those hens prob won't take the babies either, but may still try soon if can find space for them.

thanks for all of your alls input.