hen hatch her eggs

[snowcone]

I had a few free range chickens, no coop, laying eggs in the barn where ever. Easter egg hunt every day! One day I looked in a upright trash can and saw a hen sitting on eggs. I checked on them one day and there was 7 or 8 hatched out. At that point I made a pen to put the hen and chicks in along with another 8 eggs not hatched yet. No other eggs hatched once i moved them. Six of them survived, with five hens and they should start to lay in a week or so. Question 1- did I just get lucky or can this be done often if I make a separate box in the coop(i have made one since) for them lay in and hatch out. Question 2- Should have I left everything be for a couple of days to let others hatch? I took them out because I didn't know how long they been hatched before I find them and figured I need to get them some feed and water. I would like to do this about once a year if it would work. This would be a cost affected way to build up my flock and replace the older hens. Does anybody else do this? The roosters will be sunday dinner sometime

 

[Mahonri]

Congrats! you never know when you are going to get a broody.
You never know. If you had left them there, you may have hatched more. Did you do eggtopsies? (open the unhatched eggs to see how far along they were?)

You also can never predict where they will decide to go broody.

Good luck!

 

[snowcone]

Quote:
There was peeping in one egg but we had to leave for my daughters ball game, when we came back it was hatched but didn't live. the rest of the eggs I left them in there for another week or so then tossed them. I think all of them had chicks in them, but after I removed them from the trash can, the hen didn't sit on them.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Merry Christmas and

congratulations on your broody too!

Perhaps you could give your hens some nest boxes and encourage them to lay there. Put some fake eggs or golf balls to inspire them, try to confine them to that area for at least the morning hours. Take roll call each night to see if everyone came back to roost. This will make it more likely for you to notice if/when a hen has gone broody.

A hen can brood anywhere, but ideally she should have her own private quarters. A secluded place with enough room to get up & stretch her legs daily, her own food & water dishes. Fenced to keep her safe from predators & nosy intruding hens, confined to stay with that nest alone.

Each hen seems to come with her own component of broodiness, some will want to brood up to several times a year, others will do it only once or twice in their lifetimes. It's difficult to "make" them go broody, they listen to the little voices in their heads that only they can hear.

It's Nature's Way for a hen to lay more eggs than she needs to hatch, and more eggs develop than need to finish, more chicks hatch than need to mature. Those extra eggs could have just been her surplus, or they could have been added by other hens after she began to set. Once a hen has a batch of chicks hatch she will leave the nest with them, and rarely go back to incubate the rest.

 

[snowcone]

I thought about closing a corner of the coop off for a brooding hen to lay eggs. Hopefully that will work. Of course I wont do it till late spring in the warm weather. Any other info would be appreciated.