Broody Chicken

We have 14 hens. We currently have one that is broody. My husband has been taking
the eggs out daily when he collects the eggs. We are pretty sure that the other hens are shoving their way into her nesting box or crawling on top of her to lay their eggs.
I'm not certain how long she had been broody. At least a week. I was wondering if he
quit collecting the eggs that she is on will she stay broody until they hatch? Our hens will
be a year old next month and lay eggs like crazy LOL

Thank you for taking the time to read this

Keep collecting the eggs every day and save them in a cool, dark, quite, location. Turn all the eggs once, three times or five times a day until you have 12 to 15 eggs saved that are hopefully less than 10 days or 2 weeks old. Mark each egg well with a soft graphite pencil.

Being very sure that there are no other eggs under your hen, gently put the saved eggs under her all at one time. Try to prevent any other hens from laying in your brood hen's nest. Do not put food and water inside the opening or in the nest but keep it near by at all times, keep a check for any volunteer eggs and remove any eggs that are not properly marked. Your hen knows what she is doing and chickens have been hatching eggs longer than us human beings have been on this planet. Let your chickens do what they were hatched knowing how to do and it will all come together.

PS: a cool location is approximately 55 to 65 degrees @ 60 to 70% humidity.

PPS: the chick embryo turns to face the light and hens who hatch very many eggs lay every day. The reason those hens hatch many eggs is that the first thing that the hen does when she goes on her nest to lay is to shuffle her all ready laid eggs like a riverboat gambler shuffles cards. This keeps the chick embryo for staying in one place too long and sticking to the membrane. Try not to handle the eggs anymore than necessary. Even the oil on your skin can kill a developing chicken embryo. So think what moisturizing cream or skin conditioner will do.

We get about 12-13 eggs a day so it won't take long. LOL Hopefully we can start the process today.
Why pencil rather than a sharpie? (I only ask because somewhere I had seen someone say she was going to use a sharpie next time. When you say to mark them, are you talking about putting the date on them?

What is the best thing to use for washing my hands before touching the eggs to mark them?

Thank you for all the advice!

celtic kiss said:

Why pencil rather than a sharpie? (I only ask because somewhere I had seen someone say she was going to use a sharpie next time. When you say to mark them, are you talking about putting the date on them?

What is the best thing to use for washing my hands before touching the eggs to mark them?

Thank you for all the advice!

Click to expand...

I am old school and the graphite doesn't penetrate and clog up the porous shell. I don't know if it matters but if I am pretty much unsure then I err on the side of caution.

Don't worry too much about what to wash your hands with, just keep them clean and off the eggs as much as possible. Too much soap may even be as bad as too little soap. Chicken eggs are a living and breathing ovum, not some exquisite rare jewel to be cradled in our hands and marveled at.

A egg once laid never increases in hatch-ability, hatch-ability only decreases with time. How fast hatch-ability decreases is in (or maybe on) your hands.