Will Chickens that Lay Smaller White Eggs Sit on Larger Brown Eggs too

[rhino533]

Will chickens that lay smaller white eggs sit on larger brown eggs from a different hen? I have Japanese Bantams and want to use them as surrogate egg sitters and mothers for my larger Sex Link Hens. My Sex links never sit on the eggs. My Japanese Bantams are new to my house hold and I just hope they will sit on my sex links eggs. The difference in egg size is about double or more. Will the Japanese Bantams still sit on them?

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

A broody hen will sit on any egg - any color, species, size - once they are broody. First, you want to be sure your Japs are broody. She will sit on the nest day and night and will get up only once or twice to eat, drink, and use the bathroom. She will also walk around clucking and fluffed up. She will probably growl and may peck you when you try to put your hand in her nest.

I wouldn't put more than 3-4 of the sex-link eggs under a bantam hen. Any more than that and she may not be able to keep them all warm.

And, you probably know this, but the chicks you hatch from your sex-link hens will not look the same as the parents. Since Sex-links are a hybrid cross somebody developed to tell the gender of the chick at hatch and not really a purebred chicken, there is no telling the color you will get from the chicks.

 

[Sjisty]

I have a Serama hen right now sitting on two Dark Copper Marans eggs. She just recently finished raising three Partridge Brahma chicks. It was a real treat watching her 4 week old babies trying to get under her when they are almost her size!

 

[rhino533]

Should you add another chickens eggs to the nest before she goes broody or just after she goes broody?

 

[Sjisty]

I add them after they are broody. If I have eggs in the incubator, I will give them eggs that are fairly close to hatching so they aren't broody forever!

 

[Oregon Blues]

Chickens will set on purple and pink plastic eggs and golf balls. I doubt that brown color is going to be an issue.