Putting eggs under a broody

[333113]

If the hen is setting on fertile eggs (though it sounds like this one may not be) remember that most hens will stay on the nest for a day or two after the first egg hatches, then take whoever has hatched as her family and walk away from the unhatched eggs. If some eggs are added days after the first eggs, she may end up walking away from eggs that would have hatched if she had kept setting for two or three days more.
In that case, you can candle the remaining eggs, and put the good unhatched eggs in the incubator. When those hatch, wait until the hen goes to sleep with her brood, preferably in the dark, then sneak the extra chicks under her, one by one. A hen can usually raise more chicks than she can hatch. I have even added store-bought chicks under a hen with her own chicks. This works best if the chicks and hen are within 72 hours of the main hatch. However, even chicks that are past their imprint period will fall in with the rest of the flock and consider the hen their mom.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I am not aware of Australorps or Leghorns having good reputations as broody hens, .

Black Australorps have a good reputation for going broody, I've had better luck with Australorps than I've had with Buff Orps. My BA's were great broody hens. That doesn't mean every one did but a lot did. According to Henderson's Breed chart they do go broody. On the other hand, Leghorns have the reputation of usually not going broody but I've never had Leghorns.

Of course any hen can go broody, even Leghorns, and not every hen of any breed will go broody even if her breed often does. Each one is an individual.

Henderson’s Breed Chart

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

 

[MROO]

I am not aware of Australorps or Leghorns having good reputations as broody hens, so I will offer this experience. Two years ago one of my Crevecoeurs started setting on eggs, both hers and her sisters' eggs, so she was setting on quite a pile. I kept an eye on her, because setting behavior is rare in Crevecoeurs. Sure enough, she killed the first baby that hatched. She probably thought it was a mouse or other predator. I fired up the incubator and moved all the rest of the eggs to the warmed up incubator. Of the 19 eggs she was setting on, 18 hatched, including the one she killed, and only one was an early loss. So, pretty amazing broody, but no good as a mother.
When chickens are selected to not be broody, you don't know what parts are missing of their "programming" to raise their next generation. This goes for roosters, too. Until you are certain that a particular hen or roo is good with chicks, make no assumptions, especially if the breed is reputed to be non-setter. And be prepared with an incubator or brooder box to step in, if you are serious about raising chicks.

I have Nankin Bantams, a breed noted for being great broodies and wonderful mothers. One of my best hens (a beautiful lady!) goes broody pretty regularly, but can't be trusted to hatch chicks. She's fine as long as she has to do is set, but as soon as those nasty little fuzzy things start breaking her eggs, she goes nuts! She is no longer allowed to set, and we keep her away from other babies, as well. If she wasn't so pretty - and such a good layer, she'd be retired, by now!

 

[A.M. Eggs]

My broody BO just hatched seven out of twelve eggs today. Three are pipping and two i'm not for sure on. Broody are great for hatching chicks.

 

[lutherpug]

Well, here's the update. I candled the 7 eggs in my incubator and it appears that we have 3 clears and 4 potential blood rings. I'm not going to candle the remaining 8 eggs that Astrid is sitting on until tomorrow night but I hope those eggs have a higher success rate than the ones I held back for incubation indoors.

If I somehow ended up with 15 dud eggs I'll have to decide if I want to try to trade out the eggs for a few day old chicks or if I just try to break her. I kind of hate to break her after she's been broody for going on 2 weeks. Hopefully she is sitting on at least a few viable eggs.

 

[aart]

ACK..that stinks!
All are shipped eggs?
for at least a few live hatchers!

 

[lutherpug]

ACK..that stinks!
All are shipped eggs?
for at least a few live hatchers!

Right? Yes, they were all one shipment of 16 eggs, I tossed one with a hairline crack upon arrival. My success rate with hatching eggs on EBay has been over 50% but I may have just been lucky.

 

[Ridgerunner]

One year I got 1 out of 6 turkey eggs, a pretty bad rate. The next year I hatched 5 out of 5 turkey eggs from the same source. So yeah, pretty close to that 50% rate you always hear about if you average it out. But both individual hatches were not close to average.

 

[Morrigan]

Sorry to hear that. Shipped eggs are such a gamble. Hopefully some are still good under the broody.

 

[lutherpug]

I finally got around to candling everything this morning as I've been sick with the crud here for a few days. Some of the ones in the incubator I was worried about look great today (day 8). Out of all of the eggs, it looks like we have 4 good ones so that is what she is currently sitting on and the remainder have been tossed. I'll candle again somewhere between day 14 and 17 and then leave well enough alone and see what happens. Fingers crossed! I think I will give her a few day old chicks if this doesn't pan out but hopefully these ones get to the finish line.