broody hen sitting on 14 eggs, all different ages

[mamaharper]

long story, sorry!

My broody hen hatched her very first chick on easter sunday (4-9) she also killed that baby, im assuming either something was wrong with it, or shes a first time mother and felt alarmed by this new being. I took her other 2 eggs off of her and attempted to hatch them with a heat lamp and humidifier but that didnt work out unfortunately.
Her broodiness hasnt broke and since approximately 5-6 days after her first hatching, shes been hoarding eggs from the other hens. Every day i went in the coop she stole a few more, she now is sitting on 14 eggs!
I was going to let nature take its course this time, and not candle the eggs and just see what happens, but im a little concerned about the hatching rate of the remaining eggs if she hatches another peep and goes off to mother it (instead of killing it).
I thought about purchasing an incubator and just let the eggs hatch in there, but considering they are all different ages, at least with 1-5 days of each other, i dont think that will work because it seems like the incubators have different stages during the course of the 21 days.
Will she sit on all the eggs, if fertilized until they all hatch? Or will it be worth it to invest in an incubator?
Any insight would be valuable, tysm!

 

[Prince and Pavo]

Hello!

Yikes! She killed the chick? Not every broody would be a good mother, and your girl may be too dangerous to the chicks to take care of them…

It is likely that not all of them will hatch, since they are at all different stages of development. Some will hatch, and if the mom doesn’t kill those ones, she would get off the nest to take care of them. The others would be left behind to die shortly before they are ready to hatch. In nature, a single hen would lay her clutch, and after she has deposited all the eggs, then and only then she would begin to set.

I would definitely suggest investing in an incubator. It’s super helpful in emergencies such as this, and great to have around to hatch eggs whenever you want, without having to wait for a hen to go broody.

Personally, I think you should get an incubator and take the eggs from under her. She seems too inexperienced and to me it would be too risky to let her keep the chicks. This way, you can hopefully be able to save and hatch all the eggs, whereas only the first few that she started incubating would hatch if you left them.

If you do decide to leave then under her and let her hatch them, then I would suggest collecting the rest of the eggs that are left when she gets up to take care of the chicks and put them in the incubator. If she ends up being a good mother, you could put the chicks under her at night shortly after they hatch. She should take care of them just like the others…IF she doesn’t kill the original ones in the first place, that is.

Tell us what you decide to do! Best of luck!

 

[mcdze]

incubator will work .. a rocking style turner can be left on, wont hurt a thing .. humidity, just keep it at 60-80 the whole time .. just be careful about not purging the air out opening it when you got pipped eggs, thats the most critical time ..

 

[mamaharper]

Hello!

Yikes! She killed the chick? Not every broody would be a good mother, and your girl may be too dangerous to the chicks to take care of them…

It is likely that not all of them will hatch, since they are at all different stages of development. Some will hatch, and if the mom doesn’t kill those ones, she would get off the nest to take care of them. The others would be left behind to die shortly before they are ready to hatch. In nature, a single hen would lay her clutch, and after she has deposited all the eggs, then and only then she would begin to set.

I would definitely suggest investing in an incubator. It’s super helpful in emergencies such as this, and great to have around to hatch eggs whenever you want, without having to wait for a hen to go broody.

Personally, I think you should get an incubator and take the eggs from under her. She seems too inexperienced and to me it would be too risky to let her keep the chicks. This way, you can hopefully be able to save and hatch all the eggs, whereas only the first few that she started incubating would hatch if you left them.

If you do decide to leave then under her and let her hatch them, then I would suggest collecting the rest of the eggs that are left when she gets up to take care of the chicks and put them in the incubator. If she ends up being a good mother, you could put the chicks under her at night shortly after they hatch. She should take care of them just like the others…IF she doesn’t kill the original ones in the first place, that is.

Tell us what you decide to do! Best of luck!

thank you so much for the helpful reply! I was thinking about going this route but wasnt sure about when to put them in the incubator. If i do get one, and they are all at different unknown stages, can they all be at the same temp and humidity?

 

[mamaharper]

incubator will work .. a rocking style turner can be left on, wont hurt a thing .. humidity, just keep it at 60-80 the whole time .. just be careful about not purging the air out opening it when you got pipped eggs, thats the most critical time ..

So will this be fine for all of the eggs considering I dont know how far they are developed? I could see in the few that I did candle that there was a lot of dark space and some movement

 

[Prince and Pavo]

Yes, I think it should be fine to keep turning them even if you don’t know how long they’ve been incubated. Just stop turning whenever you see the first external pip. Also, keep the humidity at what it should be during hatch, around 70-ish percent.