Taking chicks away from broody mother or not?

[aart]

I read a funny story about this situation...keeper 'tricked' the hen by picking up one of her chicks and putting an extra one back down.
Creative and Successful!!

 

[ShannonR]

Can I put the chicks I took back when the rest hatch? Or will she no longer accept them. I wanted to take the chicks that first hatch at night and wait till the others hatch. And then at night when all have hatched, I wanted to put back the first chicks that hatched back with their mother.

I've done that with a turkey before! Try it and see.... just keep a close eye on them.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Can I put the chicks I took back when the rest hatch? Or will she no longer accept them. I wanted to take the chicks that first hatch at night and wait till the others hatch. And then at night when all have hatched, I wanted to put back the first chicks that hatched back with their mother.

If it's longer than a few days I probably wouldn't try. After chicks are older than a week odds are she won't take them, but every hen is different.

An age gap of more than a week will also leave you with chicks that are strong and those that are still trying to keep up.

You can try, but watch carefully and be ready to remove chicks as some hens will kill what they think isn't theirs.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

I'd leave the chicks with the mother. She won't leave the nest until all are hatched.

 

[Shadrach]

I have a broody hen and her eggs are about to hatch. She layed them at different times and days. When her first babies hatch will she abandon her eggs to take care of the new born chicks. I want her to hatch all the eggs. Is there anyway I could do this. Please help.

I'm really against this idea, especially if you plan to let the mother hen look after her chicks at any point. Those that she hatches she will probably take away from the nest if she can and leave the remainder of the eggs. There are lots of very good reasons why a hen does this but the most important one here is all her chicks will be at a similar level of development and thus have an equal chance of utilizing the resources available. This is how nature has arranged it.
Even over a staggered hatch of 72 hours thee is a noticeable size difference between the first and the last chick.
My view is let her hatch and care for the chicks she will hatch and forget about the rest of the eggs. If this hen has gone broody once she will probably do it again and the next time you will know to mark her eggs and remove the eggs from other hens.