So, I have a brood hen.....

We have a young hen--approx 8 months old Buff Orp. she has shown signs of broodiness a time or 2, but removed herself from the nest after a few hours. Last night my dd had to take an egg from under her. Just checked eggs this afternoon--and she is still there, sitting on a wooden egg...I took the egg out. But then had a thought--if I order hatching eggs quickly-would there be a good chance of being able to have her hatch them? My dd wants to try to show purebred Amauracanas (yes I know I spelled it wrong!!) and maybe this is a good way to go.

We have no idea what we are doing regarding hatching, so looking for opinions of those with experience. We were planning to get more chicks soon to raise over the winter anyway...so one way or another we'd be getting chicks.

Thanks!

She could hatch them. I have a hen that is currently raising indian runner ducks she hatched. Shippin eggs do not have as good of a hatch rate as eggs you get locally, so if you can find a breeder close enough to pick up the eggs from you may get more chicks.

Thanks for the answer. I do think I have a place an hour away who has eggs. Will probably give it a try if she remains on the nest until the weekend.

BTW, she is still sitting there on nothing....I took the wooden egg away earlier. I feel bad lol....we will give her a few wooden eggs to sit on.

Good plan, but yes get something under her to encourage her. I just used a couple of eggs from the fridge

Also food for thought is where do you want her to sit for the next 3 weeks. On the regular nest box is problematic as other hens will keep laying so you will need to keep disturbing her to remove their eggs and all the shuffling for a spot on the nest could lead to breakages.

Most people find it easier to give them their own dark box to nest in, if you are going to do this you need to make sure she has settled on again before you spend money on eggs . If you plan to breed maybe even give some thought to a separate broody area where she can sit and then be separate but in sight of the others till the chicks are big enough to let her back into the general population. I had one other hen that had tried going broody try to attack my chick through the wire so I was glad they had their own area.

I took two tries before mine stayed. First time she got straight off and I did that at night. Second time was late afternoon and I carried her and our temporary eggs at the same time with her clucking at me and watching them. That time I put them in the nest and she happily sat in spot. I then fenced her in for the rest of the evening through till the morning and she stuck. So don't give up if your first attempt fails.

We have 3 nest boxes and she didnt let anyone lay in them today. I think she will get her own box made tomorrow so the other girls can go back to using the boxes. Her timing is poor...we are almost done with the big coop which will have plenty of space for all, but also fit a 16 box nest box that I was given...So at this point, she will be shifted out tomorrow and then have a major shift in a week or so when the coop is finished. Maybe it is good to wait until the big move is made and see if she is still broody.

Thanks for the advice!!!

So, I made her a box. She was ok in it, but went back to the now empty favorite nest box (left her 'eggs' behind). Moved her again after bedtime...she stayed until one of the other hens decided the new box was a good box....She moved back to the favorite box. But that was ok, because the other hens like the new box. Except for the fact that if she were in the new box, she'd be easier to move to the new coop, which is almost done. Sigh. I'm not sure I want to mess with her anymore....Though she is rather single minded--"Must sit in nest"...even with nothing under her lol!

We did get her hatching eggs from a breeder. 7 Rhodebar eggs. She is sitting and now has water and food near her. We will probably make her a little pen so the others dont bug her.

We also got 4 Ameracauna chicks.

Great idea to make her her own nest, otherwise the big hens could kill the chicks or the mother could get distracted! Are you raising the ameracauna chicks yourselves or is a hen? I know when my cochin went broody she very diligently stayed on eggs (even infertile) until they hatched (2 months, we had to pick some up) but i don't know how diligent buff orps are so my recommendation is to make sure she has an egg or something resembling one under her all the time ideally.

We are raising the chicks. I had hoped for ameraucana eggs, but he didnt have any. But he had chicks. The rhodebars are a new breed for us. We will see what she does. But the new coop is almost done. It is much bigger, so easier for me to set her up some private space.

Ive never heard of rhodebars either, post pictures of the chicks when they hatch! Ameracauna chicks are adorable! Do they have a little chipmunk stripe on their back?! How many eggs did you get? Another thing you can always do once your hen starts incubation is candle the eggs! Its kinda fascinating seeing the chick develop! Have you put the eggs under your hen yet?

We have 7 eggs. They were laid yesterday and went under her yesterday. Rhodebars are apparently very rare--bred as an egglaying breed. Its a cross between RIR and Golden Brussbar from England. I am told good layers, which is what I want. But this is mostly for my daughter, who is so excited to be going through the process. She will be doing 4h soon with whatever purebreds we have.