One broody hen and cross breeding

[Sheila]

I have one broody sex link who is setting. We recently sold our Speckled Sussex hens but still have the roos, which are soon going to be butchered. We are replacing everything with RIR for egg size consistency. The SS eggs are too small and look weird in the carton with the jumbos.

The SS have some good traits however, and I love their personalities. Since the eggs now laid are the result of the sex link (RIR/Barred Rock) hens and the SS roos, I thought I'd experiment.

The broody hen is setting on eleven eggs that I put under her. Every couple of days one or two other hens manages to get an egg in, and I pick them out. I marked the original eleven.

I am getting RIR chicks in a couple of weeks, about the same time as the hen's eggs should hatch. I'm thinking of just popping them all together since they will be very close in age.

Will this be a blow to the hen? What would happen if she had the chicks and they were all in with the rest of the hens who do not have chicks. Can she protect them?

Also, she is currently setting in a nestbox about eighteen inches from the floor. Should I move her before/after hatch?

I've incubated eggs but never allowed a hen to set before, and I want to protect the chicks who I plan to breed to the new RIR roo to hopefully strengthen the egg size gene while maintaining other qualities.

Thanks

 

[elmo]

I'm new at the broody thing myself, so I have no experience, just what I've read.

Your broody hen may or may not accept the new chicks as her own. She might well attack them, so you've got to be prepared for brooding them yourself. The usual recommendation is to separate the broody hen from the rest of the flock so she doesn't get pestered off the eggs, leaving them to chill. The other reason is so other hens don't keep adding eggs to the nest...but you've figured out a way to deal with that.

Finally, I've read that it's a good idea to keep the hen and her newly hatched chicks away from the flock for a while until the chicks get a bit bigger. Again, this is so the other hens don't attack the chicks. But some people don't segregate to begin with, only if they see problems.