Please help!! Introducing day old chicks to broody hen(s) with 5-7 day old chicks

[MissLavender]

I've had a few multiple broodies and some double nest/hen sits and recently a triple hen sit.
Surprisingly the triple hen sit went quite well apart from they left a lot of viable eggs behind after the first lot hatched. They all abandoned the remaining eggs. This is actually the behaviour one should expect. The instinct is to get away from the nest with the mobile chicks within the shortest time.
I would leave the sitting hens to it. I don't fancy your chance of introducing incubator hatched chicks with that age difference but I've never done it so....
I accept what the hens hatch. If viable eggs are left behind I break them and leave them for the wildlife. If a hen has sat once she'll most proably do it again and anything I've learned can be applied the next time.

Were they all in the same box, or different boxes?

 

[Shadrach]

Were they all in the same box, or different boxes?

The triple sit was over two nest boxes with eggs in one coop.
I've had a double sit in my house which ended up as an egg breaking competition two hens one nest.
I've had a double sit in the wild and that went okay, one nest two hens, but there were only three viable eggs.
I've had double sits in adjacent coops and that was fine until the mums marched out with their chicks. The mums were forever fighting. I had to put more space between the coops which thankfully are portable with effort.

 

[MissLavender]

The triple sit was over two nest boxes with eggs in one coop.
I've had a double sit in my house which ended up as an egg breaking competition two hens one nest.
I've had a double sit in the wild and that went okay, one nest two hens, but there were only three viable eggs.
I've had double sits in adjacent coops and that was fine until the mums marched out with their chicks. The mums were forever fighting. I had to put more space between the coops which thankfully are portable with effort.

These two are sisters, and of a breed that are reputed to co-mother very well, so hopefully the fighting thing won't be an issue.

 

[Shadrach]

These two are sisters, and of a breed that are reputed to co-mother very well, so hopefully the fighting thing won't be an issue.

Cross your fingers then.
I hope it works out.

 

[Shadrach]

These two are sisters, and of a breed that are reputed to co-mother very well, so hopefully the fighting thing won't be an issue.

Just to put a smile on your face.
Mel and Hurry in their last attempted double sit until I stole their eggs.

 

[MissLavender]

Just to put a smile on your face.
Mel and Hurry in their last attempted double sit until I stole their eggs.
View attachment 2040979

Awww! ☺

 

[Mrs. K]

I had two hens go broody, but a day apart. They hatched together and they mothered them all together, and it worked well. However a week apart is going to be too long I think. I would move the chicks and hen away from the hopefully still brooding second hen. I would not try and introduce any chicks born a week later to a successful broody hen with chicks. I would brood them myself.

 

[Sixandahalfacres]

I had multiple Orpingtons go broody last year and I just kept on hatching (most were about a week apart). As soon as the hen had been good and broody for a few days I moved her (and the whole nest box- I had removeable plastic dishpans in the nest box) into an empty 8x6’ playhouse. I just kept moving the hens - I think at one point I had three or four hens in there, I just put one in each corner with the food and water in the middle. After the chicks under one hen hatched, I took the whole nest box/hen/chicks and moved them into a large brooder box that I usually used for chicks without a mama. After about a week, I moved the mom and her chicks back into the main coop and she did everything else.

The only thing I had to do was build some 2x4 boxes to insert the dishpans into in the “broody house” because the moms would have flipped the nest boxes over when they stepped out of them.

I think after the first batch hatched move the chicks and one hen to somewhere else... it usually takes a few days for the hens to snap out of being broody - the chicks are too weak and little to go far, and are still absorbing their yolks and don’t need food and water yet so they usually don’t venture far. That way you can make sure the second hen stays on the other clutch.