Using a Broody Chicken???????

[JordanFamily]

I have a chicken that is broody and was wondering yalls ideas on putting Sebastopol eggs under her? She is a medium sized standard hen. So do you think it would work? Do you think I should only let her set on them for a while or hatch them out completely? Is that even possible? How many should I give her? I know I will have to make sure they are getting turned but how often??? Thanks

 

[Judy]

About the only thing I'm sure of is you don't have to turn them. Mama does this and all the rest of the work. She'll do better in a private pen where the others won't bother her, and she does need to get up daily for food, water, to poop, and to get just a little exercise. Usually she will do this on her own but occasionally you get a broody who would sit there and starve if you didn't intervene.

I know chickens have hatched duck eggs so I don't see why she couldn't hatch goose eggs. She will even raise them, at least at first. How many is just going to be a matter of what she can cover. A good sized chicken can cover maybe 10 chicken eggs well. I don't even know how big a goose egg is!

ETA here's an article on broodies. It even mentions a chicken who had a clutch of chicks and took on some goslings (p. 4 I think.)

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html

 

[JordanFamily]

Quote:
Well a goose egg is at least 4X bigger than a chicken egg so I think I may need to help turn them if she can not.... Is there anyone on here that has used a hen that has advice??? Thanks

 

[pete55]

I would advise no more than 3-4 eggs but an ideal way to improve hatching potential. You'd be surprised how well a broody hen will manage to turn the eggs. Think of a tiny warbler incubating a cuckoo egg

Just make sure she's fully broody.

Pete