Will they adopt new chicks or eat them

[Chicky_Baby]

OK, I know I am lazy but I am really just not into putting a box of chicks under my dining room table again especially in this hot summer weather. I have one broody hen and 4 others that are in good health but not interested in sitting on the eggs at the moment. Would it be possible to buy chicks and put them in the pen with the others in hopes of their being adopted or am giving the girls Chicken McNuggets? Sorry if this is a stupid question but this is my first year with hens. Also if this is doable how do I go about it?

 

[Judy]

There is no guarantee. I put 4 from TSC under a broody late one afternoon, she seemed to tuck them under her, and an hour later I found them huddled in a corner of the coop. I bought 4 more and slipped them under a broody well after dark, like 11 PM, and she accepted and raised them beautifully. Hopefully, all it takes is putting them under a broody at night.

No brooding chicks in my house, anyway, any time. The 4 who the broody rejected went into a pen in my coop with a heat lamp. Three weeks later, with nighttime lows at 70 or a little less, I turned off the heat lamp entirely as the chicks were staying as far away from it as they could. In this heat, a heat lamp is almost unnecessary, or it would be here.