cutecrow123
Hatching
- May 2, 2016
- 3
- 0
- 7
I have a broody chicken (buff orpington) who is trying to hatch killdeer eggs im wondering what I should do should i let her hatch them? Should i throw them? Its illegal but that's only for people to hatch or care for them I'm not sure if that applies to chickens lol. Let me tell you what happened...there was 2 kill deers nesting in the middle of my chicken pen (about 2 acres) my hen who had just gone broody kept stealing the nest of 4 eggs (about a week after they layed them) so i locked her up and the parents went back to sitting but the nest day she got out again and went straight back to the nest where i didnt find her till about 1 1/2 hours later so i locked her up in a box with the coop shut and locked but the next day the parents didn't come back after awhile i remember I didn't see them at all after she got out they must have thought she destroyed the nest and ate the eggs or something so i removed her and they didnt come back it had been 8 hours (i had a trail cam at the nest sight) so i checked and the eggs were cold not freezing but that is cause it was 85 degrees outside they had only been incubating for about 3-4 days so when it started getting colder and nothing (about 12 hours after the hen got out) i decided i would let the hen incubate them if they were even alive and i would let her raise them and i wont go near the hen or the chicks so the chicks will still fear humans and still be wild (kinda aside from being raised by a chicken) we are at about 3 weeks into incubation so only another week or so till the chicks come out i did leave 1 egg in the nest just incase the kill deer came back (they did not they now have another nest in my driveway) i tried everything to get this hen to stop she had a nest of eggs and a nest of bantam eggs but she wanted the killdeer eggs, i even tried to give her chicks! (Which i had to raise after all the work to get them here for her)
So what do guys think? Do you think she will be able to raise them? I alredy called my local Department of Wildlife and idaho fish and game, they said not many chicks make it cause of all the constant attention they need so i told them what if a different bird was to raise them and that i wouldn't interact with them at all, they told me aslong as i wasnt touching, handling or feeding them they said it sound fine to them but im not sure... i can update when they hatch so far all 3 are alive (i candled 1 time a few weeks ago) and i cant wait to see what happens. The broody hen is right next to the original nest sight about 1 acre away from the barn so they will have a wild environment. But if all else fails im not far from a rescue who could take them.
So what do guys think? Do you think she will be able to raise them? I alredy called my local Department of Wildlife and idaho fish and game, they said not many chicks make it cause of all the constant attention they need so i told them what if a different bird was to raise them and that i wouldn't interact with them at all, they told me aslong as i wasnt touching, handling or feeding them they said it sound fine to them but im not sure... i can update when they hatch so far all 3 are alive (i candled 1 time a few weeks ago) and i cant wait to see what happens. The broody hen is right next to the original nest sight about 1 acre away from the barn so they will have a wild environment. But if all else fails im not far from a rescue who could take them.
a starling got in the nest last night and got 1 egg and put a hole in the other. The 2 eggs that are left are doing good i saw feed in both of them 
