My chickens are 19 weeks old and haven't started laying yet. I was wondering if I bought some ducks eggs (runners ) in the near future will they sit and hatch them or not. Are they to young to want to go broody? Will this completely throw off there time that they would have started to lay? Hubby really thinks they girls will hatch them but I just don't know. Should i just try to incubate the duck eggs? Any knowledge on this would be appreciated.
If & when your hens, if they really are hens, decide to go broody you could certainly give them duck eggs to hatch. But there are a lot of variables with hens & broodiness. Some hens will never want to brood, some will give it a half-hearted try, and others are Super Mamas. There are a lot of great discussions on the care & keeping of broody hens already on the forums. I would suggest not spending a lot of $$$ on fertile eggs for an untried broody hen, wait until you know she'll stick to the job. You could have your sources handy and if/when a hen goes broody you could order/buy your eggs then. Let the hen sit on a few chicken eggs until the duck eggs arrive, then swap them at night.
