switched out bad eggs with 4 day old chicks, hen is pecking them!

[Beekissed]

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I would watch her tomorrow to see if she is staying on those eggs tomorrow. Then I would wait until the night after tomorrow night....just to make sure she is really going to sit again and give her time to get settled in. Then I would quietly slip my hand under her and remove an egg, one at a time. Then I would just as quickly and quietly slip chicks under her...you can just stuff them under there, believe me. Don't pick her up and don't use much lighting, if any at all. Make sure you do this after full dark and soon enough that she has all night to sit on those little peeps. By morning she should be quite proud of hatching those eggs....make sure you get out there at first light to see what she does when she steps off that nest.

 

[jadell]

Every hen I've had go broody will sit in one of the boxes whether she's on eggs or not. She's broody until she hatches chicks. I've got 5 that are broody right now and only one has eggs. Problem now is if they hatch some out, they will all fight over them and I'll end up losing several. Guess it's time to order more meaties and let them raise them.

 

[daniel-delarosa]

I had to try again tonight since I will be out of town tomorrow night. I got two of the three eggs out from under her. The last one was deep and she pecked me,lol. I got all the chicks under her and she didn't seem to mind too much. the chicks instantly quit peeping as soon as they were under her. Hope it works this time! I guess I will try to get that last egg out in the morning.

 

[Impress]

Good luck, keep us updated!

 

[Beekissed]

Well??? Did she adopt them????

 

[daniel-delarosa]

No ma'am. I went out this morning to check on them and the chicks were outside getting pecked by the others while momma hen was sitting in her nesting box. I took the little ones and put them in a separate area. I took the momma hen out and put her in one of my suspended rabbit hutches. I read somewhere that if you do that, the hens hormones will go back to normal or something and they will come out of being broody.

 

[RollinWithTheStones]

Sorry to hear that.

 

[Beekissed]

I wondered about that when you said she left her nest for 15 min....usually a true broody won't leave a nest for that long at one time, the eggs would chill. I guess it just wasn't her time to be a momma.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

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15 minutes is not a long time for her to be off the nest, IMO. That's just enough time for her to poop, eat, and drink, maybe dust bathe for a minute and then get back on the nest. Eggs really don't cool off that quickly - I've had eggs in the incubator during a power outage and 2 hours later, they were still warm.

From the sounds of it, it's not the hen's fault. The chicks are probably just too old to realize that she is supposed to be their mama.

 

[jadell]

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I agree.