One lonely baby incubator chick and a broody with a hatch due in next 2 days

[drlaurel]

I had an incubator hatch going and only one of five hatched. The last one, is viable, but appears days behind the lonely chick i have now, a day old. Concurrently i have a silkie, one time mother to one, but broody all the time and losing her eggs always. So she's currently on two wood eggs and two silkie eggs of her own, due between 25th and 26th. They were viable a couple of weeks ago. And a newer egg, that was unfortunately snuck under her by another chicken, God knows how old, but it is viable. So my question is...do I put this lonely baby who is crying constantly, now 24 hours old, under my broody tonight? Will she leave the silkie eggs that I really want to hatch? Should I candle her eggs tonight when i sneak the chick in? And what are the odds she will accept these other two late comers if I incubate them, if I give her this guy tonight. Will she leave her eggs tomorrow and I'll have to incubate them? Or will she possibly wait for everybody to hatch? If she hatches a few, will she accept the late comers in a couple days? Thanks for any advice!

 

[DobieLover]

I had an incubator hatch going and only one of five hatched. The last one, is viable, but appears days behind the lonely chick i have now, a day old. Concurrently i have a silkie, one time mother to one, but broody all the time and losing her eggs always. So she's currently on two wood eggs and two silkie eggs of her own, due between 25th and 26th. They were viable a couple of weeks ago. And a newer egg, that was unfortunately snuck under her by another chicken, God knows how old, but it is viable. So my question is...do I put this lonely baby who is crying constantly, now 24 hours old, under my broody tonight? Will she leave the silkie eggs that I really want to hatch? Should I candle her eggs tonight when i sneak the chick in? And what are the odds she will accept these other two late comers if I incubate them, if I give her this guy tonight. Will she leave her eggs tomorrow and I'll have to incubate them? Or will she possibly wait for everybody to hatch? If she hatches a few, will she accept the late comers in a couple days? Thanks for any advice!

That's a lot of 'ifs'.
If the Silkie eggs start hatching tomorrow and you slip the incubator chick under her tonight and remove one wooden egg, she will likely sit tight and hatch out the other two eggs.
That's a bummer another egg slipped into her nest. That will likely have to go to the incubator if it's still alive when you candle. This is the main reason I mark the eggs that go under the broody and manage her morning and late afternoon breaks so I can check for extra eggs that may have been laid during her breaks.

 

[drlaurel]

Yes lots of ifs. Thank you for that advice. I had been checking frequently and removing eggs, but this one got the slip on me, and it looks a couple weeks, so I just was not thorough enough! So if the silkie eggs are due in 2-3 days, would you still slip a day old under her tonight? Or might it be better to slip this guy under her closer to her hatch even though he's imprinting on me? And then there's this incubator egg that's delayed but coming. Ughhh, raising single chicks is a major hassle, so I'm trying to time it all right, but so many variables.

 

[DobieLover]

Yes lots of ifs. Thank you for that advice. I had been checking frequently and removing eggs, but this one got the slip on me, and it looks a couple weeks, so I just was not thorough enough! So if the silkie eggs are due in 2-3 days, would you still slip a day old under her tonight? Or might it be better to slip this guy under her closer to her hatch even though he's imprinting on me? And then there's this incubator egg that's delayed but coming. Ughhh, raising single chicks is a major hassle, so I'm trying to time it all right, but so many variables.

It's unlikely you'll get all these staggered hatched chicks with the Silkie broody. Maybe wait until tomorrow to slip the chick under her. A heavily broody hen with her head about her may very well take the incubator chick and wait out her eggs to hatch if they've internally pipped and she can hear them. She will know they are hatching.

As for the other one in the bator and late one under the broody, try to raise those two together in a brooder set up in the coop near mom and her brood so that she can see them. She may show signs of wanting to adopt them too. You just can't predict what she will do so you need to be prepared to raise these staggered hatchlings yourself.