[tesni]

I have been watching my chicken Lacey and she seems to be settled into broodiness - I have let her sit for the past few days on some eggs she had snaffled from the others (not fertilised).  I now have some fertilised eggs.  The question (1st of many I'm sure  ) is how to sneak them under her?  Do I lift her, distract with a treat and swap the eggs?  Can I put more under her than she has been sitting on so far?  Do I slip them under her/swap them while she is there?  Clueless, so any advice will be really appreciated   

[joyfull]

by slight of hand - I place the new eggs next to her and carefully slide my other hand under her and remove the old ones. If you place the new ones next to her she will move them around with her beak and slide them under her - lovely to watch this being done although some broodies wait until you leave.

[fethoboy]

Hi, your question has been answered by the 2 previous posts.i do prefer to give her the eggs and watch as she rolls them under her,and then collect the dud ones.

steve.

[tesni]

*deep breath*  ooookaay, going for it now - will let you know how it goes and thanks for advice  
update - it went well, I gently put the eggs next to her and while she was putting them under her wings (so sweet to watch how careful she was and she clucked softly all the while) etc I snuck the duds away - phew, fingers crossed it continues as smoothly 

[Tattyanne456]

Awww, good luck with that. I have recently aquired fertile bantam eggs which I put under my broody, and the first one has hatched today!!. I started with 8 and have ended up with 4 . You may find that you have to lift her once or twice a day for food, drink and a poo. I didnt do that with mine at first, and she sat fast for days eventually leaking faeces in the nest!, So i started lifting her twice a day at about the same time and she did what she needed, had something to eat and drink then quickly settled back onto her eggs. Just a word of warning tho, when you lift her just make sure that she doesnt have any eggs secreted under her wings! We lost 2 that way!

[tesni]

all well with fertilised eggs so far - inc six and broody six, both set off today - but now another six are going to arrive in 2 days - out of sync ... what is best plan? don't want to waste them but ......... ?   

[joyfull]

I wouldn't put them under the broody. I tried this earlier this year after being given a couple of welsummer eggs from a kind member on here after I lost my welsummer girl. Well the original eggs hatched early (day 19) and so mum got off the two welsummer eggs at day 21 to take her other chicks out to feed. Luckily I was on hand to rush the two barely warm eggs (tucked under my top - driving like a nutter hoping not to smash them) over to Grannie Annies who I knew had her incubator running. Annies Brian popped them in for me and two days later luckily they hatched but without the use of their incubator it would have been a different story  . Mum would always want to protect the hatched ones before any unhatched eggs and after being hatched for a couple of days they would need feeding and she would have to take them to show them how.
So either you need another broody or an incubator and brooder for afterwards.

[tesni]

1 -will I be able to manage two sets of eggs in an inc with different hatch dates?
2 - if , big if, I am lucky enough to get chicks from broody & incubator can the chicks from the inc be joined with the broody?  or should they be raised separately in a brooder?