Should I let my hens raise chicks?

[BurchFunnyFarm]

So I missed having littles around and decided to fill my incubator and raise more chickens and ducks. I had a hen go broody and she has been sitting on a nest for about 10 days and my chicks are due this Sunday. Should I give her a few eggs and let her raise some chicks? Ideally I would like a few of my girls to raise chicks because I eat a lot of my chickens and constantly have to hatch or buy more. Can I let her use a private area of the coop to raise the babies?

Also my ducks built two nests and ther are 14 eggs in one and 8 in the other. I was thinking of pulling their eggs and putting my incubated eggs under them right before they hatch. Has anyone done this? Will it encourage my ducks to start raising little ones from me? I love eating ducks too and incubating them hasn't been very successful for me. I usually only get a few lings out of all the eggs I incubate. I was hoping if I can get them in the groove nature will be able to do a better job than me.

 

[Justy0]

I don't have any personal experience with chickens since I am more of a duck person, but I think that if you want to then giving your hen a few eggs would be fine. Just watch her for a while to make sure she actually is sitting on them because (and like I said I could be wrong because I haven't tried this) but she might not take them back after you have already removed them, depending on her personality. But if she is broody I am almost positive it wont make a difference. As for the ducks, basically same answer, and letting them raise some babies would probably be good for them. If you have some raised natural and some you raise yourself, then maybe you could use it as an experiment and document if it effects the way they behave later, or their laying habits. Anyway good question and sorry if I wasn't much help!