crop milk production

hi lads, now i have a hen thats gone barron so i have slipped a false egg under last nite and they are sitting the egg so i am thinking of using them as a foster pair...will this pair produce crop milk at the time the eggs would be due to hatch if they was real.. as a stock pair laid the same nite i put the false egg in and would be handy to floats these eggs over to the barron pair ?

should be ok mate

yeah i would have thought eh gaz ..thanks mate

I was learnt they'll be ok as long as you get them sitting the real eggs @ 4 or 5 days before they hatch. They feel the youngster moving about in the egg and growing towards hatching date and this triggers the production of soft feed in their crops. If just on pots with no trigger as such, then maybe nature doesn't tell them to make milk?? Maybe someone else got thoughts??

your theory sounds about right to me colin, i know they only start producing milk a few days before the eggs hatch, and not all the time they are sitting.........

if the eggs are similar age you will not have a problem, and just to help things along, feed them some canary egg food for the first week, it dont half bring the youngens on.

thanks for yer comments lads will be moving eggs over after 1 week so should be ok as i put dummy eggs under foster pair on same day as stock pair laid...atb