Day two (Aug 7) for broody hen on 14 eggs

 Congratulations! I just returned from Louisiana this evening to find one of my EEs sitting on 7 eggs. My best guestimation is she started sitting them yesterday. I placed an 8th egg that I found in another nest box in with the others while "Stella" was eating.  This is my first broody experience, too!  If my guestimation is accurate, I expect hatching  to occur about August 27, also.  I will wait cautiously and excitedly with you!

I like your brooder setup. Looks like I'm going to have to get busy on one, too!

Good Luck!

You are most welcome! Thank you for the well wishes.

Here is my broody momma, Stella. The eighth egg that I added to her collection last night was in a different nest box this morning, one row higher and two rows over to the right! I guess she didn't like that one!  I didn't know that they could move them, except to roll them, but I know it wasn't a new egg laid earlier this morning because my light green egg layer (Dora) deposited another one shortly after I removed the light green one Stella rejected.  The seven she's laying on are light green (Dora's eggs) and some of her own olive eggs.

I don't know yet what I plan to do with her and the eggs. I guess I need to figure out how to separate her from the rest of the flock for the potential chicks' safety.  I've been reading on this forum, and that seems like the thing to do.

I haven't even been able to mark the 7 she's sitting on because I haven't seen her get off of them yet today.  And I'm thinking she probably started brooding Sunday or Monday, so I'm looking at hatching around Aug 26th or 27th.

It will be exciting! And hopefully productive, lol.  Do you plan to candle your eggs next week?

I will candle mine, if she'll let me!

Well, I separated her this morning, because she was laying out in the run and very lethargic, barely responsive.  She didn't make it.  Odd, she was just fine yesterday evening.  I performed a necropsy. No bruising, not egg bound, no physical trauma.  The only thing unusual was her liver.  It was grainy in texture and the outer surface was yellowed. 

I made a quickie incubator, hopefully we can still hatch out together!  Here is a link on candling.  I don't plan to candle them until Sunday or Monday, easier to see at that point.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261876/chicks-are-here-egg-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

Regarding the moved egg, she didn't kick it out. It was in a nest box one row higher than she was nesting.  I looked here on BYC and read that people have seen them tuck the egg under their "chin" and move eggs.  Others have said they saw a hen scoop an egg up in her wing and move it.  Crazy!

Regarding the coop/run, it's 8' wide and 16' long, that's 128 square feet/25 chickens, giving 5.12 square feet per bird. Suggested sq ft per bird is 2-4.

I will be adding on to it soon, and hopefully converting some of my roosters to free ranging.

I hope yall have better luck with your broody than I did. She had been sitting on 8 eggs for the past week, when i locked them up last night around 9 she was still sitting there sleeping, I go out this morning and she isnt on her eggs anymore I feel the eggs and by the temp of them feeling cold, she must have gotten off of them sometime shortly after I locked to coop doors last night. I was so hoping for her to hatch those lil buggers out so my kids could see the whole life circle.... oh well

Mine have kicked out eggs in the past as well as just completely given up forgetting about their eggs.  I find the best way to get them to stay is a smaller area like a brooder box.  They have plenty of room to move, but they have nothing better to do rather than sit on their eggs.  I don't get why they sometimes kick eggs out, I've seen healthy embyros kicked out for no reason. And you don't need to candle but it's really neat.  I always do about day 10 because it's so cool to see the moving embryo in the egg.  One thing you should do is smell them every very so often to look for bad eggs. I just had a rotten egg explode all over my broody hen, it was disgusting.  I had to give her a bath and clean all of the other eggs.  They are still alive by the way. If it's rotten, there will be a horrible smell coming from the egg and the inside will appear as completely dark when candled. It's a horrible mess to clean up, so I watch for them.  They become rotten when bacteria invades the egg.

I hatched two eggs a few weeks ago:)) 

two out of three hatched and she kicked out the third, I put in back under her but 

she kicked it out again but I think it was an unfertile egg and after a few days they others hatched we

through it out. I didn't do any of the candeling business haha:)) I just put her in a chicken ark, 

kept food and water close by, she sometimes ran out into the garden and left them

but it was to eat grass and fly around to strech her wings. She was off them for about an hour

once and half another time, but the eggs were fine. I just let nature take it's toll:DD
Georgie, (if they hatch I would love to see some picture) 

NOOTTTEE My eggs were cold but they hatched anyway, even if the outside is cold, the inside might still be warm:)))