yes, outside babies will adapt a lot faster than babies raised inside... but, don't give her eggs here and there. give them to her all at once, because she won't get off the nest until the last egg hatches, which means that the oldest chicks might suffer from lack of food/water, if there's more than 24 hours from first to last... if you have an incubator, what i'd do is let her incubate, and once the oldest chick is 24-36 hours old, i'd take any eggs unhatched and put them in the incubator (candle to doublecheck and make sure humidity is pretty high). then any stragglers can be snuck in after dark that evening usually without problems. any later and i wouldn't chance her rejecting them.
what i do, personally, is a bit different. i don't trust broodies to STAY broody. i've had too many get bored and leave half way thru incubation. so i incubate all the eggs myself and give her a couple eggs when they go to lockdown. that lets her hatch a couple naturally (again to make sure she'll be a good momma) and leave some duds in there as well so she'll stay on the nest. then when the rest of the chicks hatch i'll put them in with her after dark and take away the dudd eggs.
lockdown is tomorrow for my next hatch, which is going to the broodies, so i need to get the pen finished ASAP LOL hopefully before it rains this afternoon for part of it...
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