Another Broody Question: Set up and chickless

I had a blue hen that went broody, abandoned an nest of 8 very important eggs (secret *SQUEE!!!*) about 4 days in and thank goodness I didn't chuck them out based on their candling, because I would have lost 5 good eggs.

Then this big black hen went broody and I wasn't really interested. I've been throwing her (literally) off the nest and finally took most of the golf balls out of the nests. She keeps going back to the one nest, which now only contains one golf ball, and sets. I chucked her off again this morning, she flapped her wings enough to land safely and then layed on the ground with her wings out as far as they would go, puffed up, growling, clucking, and pissy. Did not move.

So here's my thoughts. I'm willing to let her set, but, do I:

Give her fresh eggs (the normal thing I'd do)
Pull some of the less important eggs out of the bator to give her (does this even -work-)

OR (and this would be ideal)

Let her set on say, 8 golf balls and then give her 8 chicks in about a week when they hatch? Is this plausible? AND, since the eggs weren't raised under her, would they end up with the (seemingly) better immunity to cocci, or be more prone to die from it?

Sweetened wrote:Let her set on say, 8 golf balls and then give her 8 chicks in about a week when they hatch? Is this plausible? AND, since the eggs weren't raised under her, would they end up with the (seemingly) better immunity to cocci, or be more prone to die from it?

This works very well. I do the secret chick exchange. I sneak in at the dead of night, using a red head lamp, slide a chick under her, and pull as many golf balls out as I can, then repeat until all the chicks are under and all the balls are out.

Often the hen will have a surprised and incredulous look on her face as she feels those new babies under her.

I've had success with this too sweetened. Just make sure she is good and set with that hypnotic look in her eye and pop those wee chicks under her as soon as they're dry. I like the 'late at night idea'.

Good luck!

Schipperkesue wrote:Often the hen will have a surprised and incredulous look on her face as she feels those new babies under her.

BAHAHA. I've given chicks to a hen once, but that's because she set on 5 eggs, and all but one ended up being infertile at the time. She would -not- get off them to guide that one chick. She pecked them all on the head once and then was fine, and I did that exchange during the day because I didn't know better and didn't ask. I figured I'd just take them away if she rejected them.

Is it alright she'll be set on the golf balls for just under over a week when this happens?


Awesome Chicory, thanks so much!

I had a hen raise 24 chicks once. She hatched her own (8?) then a few days later I popped the rest under her at night. They hatched in the incubator and I was too lazy to brood them. She carefully watched over all of them! I had her in her own little chicken tractor, and after a week or so I would let her free range with them now and then.