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How long can a mother hen leave her eggs?

post #1 of 6
6/6/12 at 8:26am
Thread Starter 

This is my first hen who is sitting on eggs so Im a newbie! But my hen has been sitting on her eggs for 3 days now without moving once, I had to hand feed her and encourage her to drink water.. Then just there she came out of her house and walked around on the grass for about 10 minutes. Maybe I over-reacted but I panicked a bit about the eggs and went out to check, they weren't cold but I still encouraged her to go back in..she sat back down on them again thankfully! Is this normal and am I just completely over-reacting? Any Advice would be great!

Cristín D.gif

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post #2 of 6
6/6/12 at 8:58am

10 minutes is totally normal for a hen to get up and take care of business..... she'll do fine, don't stress

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post #3 of 6
6/6/12 at 11:37am

I've seen my hens leave the eggs for close to an hour,,, no problems encountered with the hatch.

4-EasterEgger, 3-Blk Australorps, 2-Silver Laced Wyandotts, 1 - gold laced Wyandott, 3-RIR, 1-Light Brahma, 2- Buff Orpingtons, 1  -Blue Rock, 1 - Delaware,  1 - Wheaten Maran, 2 - Cockoo Marans , 5 - Blk Minorcas, 1 - Buff Minorca, 3- Barred rocks, 2- White Giants, 2-great danes, 1-GSH, about 200+ Mexican Free Tailed bats

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4-EasterEgger, 3-Blk Australorps, 2-Silver Laced Wyandotts, 1 - gold laced Wyandott, 3-RIR, 1-Light Brahma, 2- Buff Orpingtons, 1  -Blue Rock, 1 - Delaware,  1 - Wheaten Maran, 2 - Cockoo Marans , 5 - Blk Minorcas, 1 - Buff Minorca, 3- Barred rocks, 2- White Giants, 2-great danes, 1-GSH, about 200+ Mexican Free Tailed bats

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post #4 of 6
6/7/12 at 8:55am
Thread Starter 

Ok that's great to hear, relieved, I'm definitely just over stressing Thanks!

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post #5 of 6
6/7/12 at 9:28am

I've had lots of broodies that would get up when I fed the flock, eat, drink, poop, and go back to the eggs after a few minutes. Just what she should do (they do some MONSTER poops when they brood!). Perfectly normal, the eggs will be fine. I have seen nests that I wasn't sure how long the hen had been gone, eggs stone cold (or at least, whatever the air temp. was at that time), and the eggs hatched on time, no problem. There have been a couple of times that a hen was away for hours, and I took her cold eggs and moved them to the incubator, and they hatched. I had a couple of pipped eggs that got left for a few hours in January that wound up cold and silent, I put them in the incubator, they hatched - those two Seramas are still alive today. Eggs can be much more durable than you'd think!

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post #6 of 6
6/26/12 at 2:29pm
Thread Starter 

Thats great to hear too, thanks! I cant wait for my chicks now!

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BackYard Chickens › BYC Forum › Raising BackYard Chickens › Chicken Behaviors and Egglaying › How long can a mother hen leave her eggs?