Selfsufficientish.com

How long will my hen stay broody?- it's been almost 4 weeks now, but the eggs have failed to hatch.

I would like to get some day old chicks to put under her, if I can find a supplier in time.

She seems very determined and is solidly sticking to her task still, but I am worried that she may quit before I get hold of some chicks for her to raise.
She's still in pretty good condition; just a little bedraggled, as you'd expect.

I have so far failed to find a local supplier after much searching and may have too look further afield, but I'm concerned that I may have left it too late.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

It all depends on your hen. If she's stuck to it this long (we've had some hens go 2 months before we were able to either source fertile eggs or newly hatched chicks, and then had the hen another 3 weeks till the eggs hatched!), she'll probably take chicks. What we do in this case, if you get chicks, is to give her some eggs for a few days, and then one night exchange the eggs for the chicks. They have to be newly hatched, otherwise they rarely bond. Be prepared to hand-rear the chicks if it doesn't work, but in 20 years of keeping chooks, we've only ever had this happen once.

Good luck!
Andrea
NZ

Thanks for the advice, I'm hoping to find some suitable chicks in the next week or so. Hopefully my hen will still be broody and take them on.

If not I will be prepared, as you say, to do without her.

After considering your advice, I bought 6 hatching eggs via Ebay and put them under my hen.
3 weeks later she hatched one chick which is now a week old. She's a keen mum and is giving her undivided attention to the new arrival.
Hopefully next year she will do better, otherwise building my flock will take years at the rate of 1 per year!