[FiB]

We are in the position of having 20 eggs in Incy, and a hen sitting.... With hatch date matching up! (Just got the Incy warmed up and she decided to sit!)We do t usually get better than 50% hatch rate and she's never hatched more than six, so I was wondering what are the possibilities/limits for slipping Incy chicks in with her? Biggest broods managed by a hen? Many thanks fi

[chrismahon]

Depends on the size of the hen FiB. She has to keep them all warm at night. We've never had more than 6 either (from a Wyandotte and a Buff Orpington) but I certainly wouldn't risk more than 10. So based on your hatch rate that will be about right. Presume you will let them hatch and move them all in with her one night.

[FiB]

Brill thanks. No idea what she is (descendant of inherited chickens!) maybe australorp (she is black and a bit metallic green sheen) but she is quite substantial, so I'll do it if numbers work out.      That will save a bit of Lecci and keep them put of the house .

[Fleecewife]

Even if the incy eggs hatch a day or two after her clutch, just pop the chicks under her and she'll take them. I think they can manage more chicks than the number of eggs they can brood, because chicks climb up under her wings as well as right under her body. I don't know if smaller chicks would be at a disadvantage but I shouldn't think so.   
 I have had a quite small hen raise a dozen chicks - she laid them under a hedge and we didn't know she was there until she emerged one day with a round dozen in tow.
It's worth a try - chicks raised by a broody are so much simpler and so easy compared with incy chicks.

[Somewhere_by_the_river]

We had a little Pekin bantam sit on 10 full size Sussex eggs - she successfully hatched 8 of them, the remaining two being a problem with the egg, not the broody hen. They've always hatched all that were viable out of what we put under them, whether more Pekin's, Sussex, pheasant or partridge eggs (that's why we keep them as broody birds).

It really depends on the hen, the only problem we've ever had with ours was very recently when the house in which she was sitting suddenly sprung a leak it hadn't had before. The poor hen was completely soaked through when she finally gave up - typically it happened at night so there was nothing we could do.

You don't say what the eggs are so I assume full size rather than bantam? I'd agree with trying 10 under an Australorp and definitely think sneaking a few more chicks in later post hatch won't hurt, especially if she hatches successfully and is a reliable and trustworthy bird.

 

[Fleecewife]

I should have said - don't put the incy chicks under her before her own have hatched, as she will not wait longer than a day for her own to hatch, then she will be off with the adopted lot and you will lose her clutch.

[Steph Hen]

I think I put 18 or 19 under a light Sussex last year and that was fine, I think she could have managed a few more, maybe 24. I would try more next time. Average size hen and chicks, full sized, not bantams.

But she was inside a draft free hutch, with a run with wood panelled half sides, which was also covered half wood, half glass, so was always lovely and warm, dry and only had slight breeze in even horrible weather... This may have helped cut down her work keeping them warm?

[mentalmilly]

My light sussex fostered 15 chicks last year and had no trouble.  She is a large chuck and had 12 welsummers and 3 orpingtons and they all did very well.  She was broody for 16 days on eggs no good and we slipped the chicks in a few at a time.  To do this though you have to know your hen very well and know what she will take.  l couldn't do this with some of my other broodies.