Grafting Chicks

We tried seeing if our momma hen would accept the two incubated chicks, but no go so far.  Her two are black and silver ameraucanas, so the gray chick received less notice, and more curious pecks.  The yellow chantecler chick was most definitely chased away.  Do I try again, wait a few days, leave her with two and keep two in the brooder, put the four in a brooder in the house and send her back to the coop, what?  It was interesting that the gray chick really wanted to go to her, and responded to her clucking, but the yellow could have cared less.  This broody hens/raising chicks is sure complicated business.

You will have the best success doing this in the dead of night with the youngest chicks possible.  The older they are and the brighter it is, the less chance of success.

These chicks are 2 days old, hers are 5 days old, but I really don't think that the bright yellow is going to be accepted by her, any time of day or night; it just stands out so much.

never had to do this-- so going out on a limb here!

what if you were to get a bit of the nest material (feathers,poo and all) and rub the chicks down with it, so that they smell like the others??/ but then as I type this I vaguely remember that they dont actually have a sense of smell. 
hm. 

what if you covered him in a bit of dirt or something to hide its colour a little and stuffing them under her at night? like SmartSue said, if she wakes up and there is this chick, maybe???? 

I hope it works for you.... whatever you end up doing! 

and I have to agree, this broody hen business is a mindtickler for sure..... I know its causing me some "disgruntledness" over in my neck of the woods...

If you stick them under her at night in the dark and she can't see them, they will just nestle in and stay warm.  By morning she will wake up and discover two newly hatched chicks under her tummy.  As far as she knows she hatched them herself.  You might have a good chance since they are so young.

I agree the chances of success doing it at night infinitely greater. I have done it several times now with many different chick colours. . I helped my neighbour's kids as well and they had success. Doing it when it is dark is a little scary because you won't know what is going on till morning. I never let her see the chicks I just stuff them under her. You will know they are happy because they will immediately stop cheeping. I go out to check on things later to make sure. Then I set my clock and get up at dawn (groan) to see how its going. The chicks have never come out from under her until later so I don't know why I get up so early. good luck

I agree completely with Vic's chicks. In the dark, just reach under and release the chick without her seeing it - I've never had it fail. And they're still pretty young; I'd definitely try it. I strongly doubt that colour would put her off, but I could be wrong. 
Chickens have pretty much no sense of smell, by the way.

I would like to try, but as these might be the only pet chicks, all the rest being with mother hens, my children vetoed the idea.  So, house chicks they will be.  Two is a lot easier to handle than last year's 35!  It is so cute to see the other two chicks resting on their mother's back.  Anyways, dark is rather short around here right now.  It isn't dark until after midnight, and the sun starts to rise at like 3 or 4 in the morning.  I might as well have stayed up the night if I were to try grafting.  But thanks for all the advice - I am sure an opportunity will come along again to give it a try, but I sure hope it is some other year.  But with two more hatches to go, and having gained a bit of experience of the trials of hatching, I move forward with a little less optimism than a couple weeks ago.