[ellied]

Reading another post I wonder how you go about introducing chicks to a broody who hasn't hatched them herself?  Assuming she is sitting eggs that aren't fertile she won't hear pipping etc and be triggered to expect hatching.  Does that matter and if so do you put chicks in close enough to hear first or straight under her at 3 weeks of sitting?  Would she reject as not hers or be easy to adopt?  I'm thinking day olds presexed.. 

[in the hills]

We did exactly this last year. I think that really you should wait until dark and I did read that some people pop one under leave for a while and if all is well they pop the next under and so on. We ordered our chicks from Cyril Bason and they arrived mid morning. We didn't wait but lifted up mum's wing and gently popped all under. She looked a little bemused but settled down, so left her to it. Checked after about fifteen minutes and then every hour or so. She loved them! She was a very 'broody' pekin though and had raised chicks several times before, including having abandoned still wet chicks put under her when she had only been sitting 2 days! Very maternal!

My father always popped day olds under large breed broodies at night and never had problems.

[Eve]

In the dark, one by one, slipped under a wing.
After each one, leave her to it and listen to the sounds - usually there's a bit of chirping and then it's quiet (that means they've settled). Then 15 minutes later you give her the next one.
We slip them under the broodies from a side door of the coop, then stand in the cold and dark outside for a while listening for noises, and are back at a stupidly early hour the following morning to check up on them 



If you just put them next to her during the day hens can chase little chicks away and peck them very hard if they think they're intruders and competition for their own chicks.  Better not risk it.

[Marches Farmer]

That's how we do it too.  Always worked so far.