Placing chicks under a broody

[MuscovyMad]

Hey

I was just wondering if it is possible to place chicks under a broody that is hatching eggs.

The reason i ask is that she is a pekin bantam and she is attempting to hatch 15 eggs that she has hidden from me for the past few weeks. I didn't notice for a few days so unfortunately they have all started to develop.

I have removed 9 and placed them in the bator.

Was just wondering if it is possible to place the chicks back under the broody once they hatch? As i have only ever placed eggs under broodies.

If so how would i go about doing it?

Thanks for all your help

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've done something similar before. Mine was different because I had a snake visiting the coop and eating the eggs out from under the broody. That complicated it a bit. I'll go through what I did and maybe you can pick up something.

I left fake eggs under the broody. When the eggs hatched in the incubator I took 4 chicks and put them under the broody about ten o'clock at night. I used a flashlight and kept it as dark as I could. She accepted them fine and the snake did not get them. When she brought those four chicks off the nest, I put her in a prepared snake-proof place. I put her four chicks and the others from the incubator (total of 15 all together) in a cardboard box, then dumped that cardboard box in front of her. This was in the middle of the morning, not at night. She accepted them all.

You never know how many will hatch out of your 15. I'd think you would be best off adding the incubator babies at night, just slip them in the nest with her. They are living animals and you can never be absolutely sure what will happen, but I'd expect her to accept them without any problem.

When mine raised the 15, it was middle of summer. After they were about 2 weeks old,s he could not cover them all, but it was warm and it did not matter. If your bantam laid all the eggs, then the chicks should be a size she can handle them all. But it might be close. I hope most hatch, but that is the only problem I think you might have.

 

[MuscovyMad]

Thanks for your help. I will try and add them. If she can look after them for even a couple of weeks then it will save me the hassle.

If they do grow too fast for her i'll try and take some away. Or might take her into the garage and add a supplementary lamp for extra heat for any that don't get covered. As spring has only just arrived.

Thats if they all hatch. My other hens were laying under her as she was sat there. So there are a few days between hacth dates for the eggs Hopefully she'll stick it out nand hatch them all. Then again i'll have ten in the baotr.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[kovalines]

My gradma used to do it when to hens hatched in a short period of time. She took the chicks from one hen(usually the one how hatched less chicks) and, at night, she put those chicks on the other hen. He went, at night, with a flashlight, passed the light at the hen's eyes directon and then turned it off, so she wouldn't see for a shor period of time(as happens with us when we're at night and turn off the last home's lamp), so she stayed quite and accept the chicks.

 

[MuscovyMad]

Ps ridgerunner she was attempting to hatch 21 eggs. But i candled and took 6 out. 1 was rotten and the other 5 were not developing so i'm guessing they were fresh laid eggs.

All 9 in the bator are still looking good. So looks like i have a chick population explosion on my hands.

 

[MuscovyMad]

Thought i'd post an update.

The whole hatching and moving thing hasn't gone so well.

The hen that was hatching 6 eggs had 4 of them explode underneath her. And the remaining 2 were ff soi had to chuck them. Then i had to give her a bath as she was covered in rotten egg and i don't think any adopted chick would survive under her with all teh bacteria.

However after bathing her the stress of it all must have got to her as she decided to stop her broodiness.

As for the 9 in the bator only 7 hatched. Of these 7, 1 of them had it's rear end blocked so i washed away the blockage and then the chick started leaking yolk from it's bum. And after it had all emptied it refused to eat or drink. So i hand fed it a few crumbs of it's food with bit of water every couple of hours. But she grew weaker and weaker so i had to put her down.

So i have 6 left. And in the group of 6 there are 4 large ones and 2 small ones. SO i'm hoig that's not suggesting 4 boys and 2 girls.

Overall it's been a huge fail. I think i'll stick to upping my numbers when i want more. Instead of when my hens want more from now on.

 

[MuscovyMad]

Thought i'd update this thread with a pic of the chicks that i went through all the hassle of hatching.

I had to laugh when i seen my closing line in this post as i'm currently incubating 16 eggs under two seperate hens as one of them ran off, made a secret nest and started incubating. So looks like i'm not hatching eggs when i decide after all.

Hopefully this hatch will go better than the last.

Out of the last hatch i ended up with 2 pullets and 4 cockerels. Heres a photo of the 2 pullets and the chosen cockerel at about 3 months (and my dogs nose).