Laying vs Sitting

[Fatboy]

I very new to the world of chickens and am confused about hens laying vs sitting. I have a couple of hens that lay eggs every day, and they have for a few months now, but they never sit as if to hatch any. After the nest had about 20 eggs, I pulled most out and left a few, hoping they would sit, but no luck. Since then, I leave the eggs alone and take some every few days, figuring to leave them alone if I ever see her decide to hatch them.

Am I going about this the right way or am I keeping her from sitting to hatch? All told, we have a couple of roosters and three or four hens old enough to lay and we'd sure like it if they would try to hatch some chicks.

Thanks for any and all advice!

 

[bigzio]

Fatboy, Welcome to BYC. It's normal practice to collect the eggs everyday, so they are fresh and you can enjoy them.

The difference between, laying and sitting is a term called broody. Broody hens are the ones that continue to sit on the eggs to hatch. It is a natural instinct that happens to a hen after she lays her clutch of eggs. Most hens don't go broody, however some breeds are better than others for having broody hens.

If a hen goes broody she will stay on the nest day and night, except to get off to eat, drink, and poo. You can't make a hen go broody, having said that, just collect you eggs until you see one that has become broody, if you are lucky enough. Broody hens are priceless. Hope I made sence.

bigzio

 

[Emchick]

how many roos?

 

[bigzio]

Emchick, If you are wanting to know how many hens per roo, I use one roo for every 10 to 12 hens. If he is a normal roo, he can take care of that many.

bigzio

 

[pipermark]

Fatboy, there are many breeds that have been breed for egg production. This means that the desire to sit has been bred out of them. They will lay egg, tell the world what they did, and then they walk away. These are called production breeds and there are some APA breeds that will do the same.

If you purchased birds from your local store they are probably production birds and may never "sit" DISCLAIMER - there are always exception to the rules, all brids, somewhere in their genetic makup have the "sit on the egg to they hatch gene" so even in production or breeds developed for egg production you will have the occasional sitter.


By the way. People that raise breeds like this for show or to sell, (so they want babies), often get some breeds that do go broody. They just dont get a rooster. They also pick a breed that the eggs look different then their main breed. Silkes and cochins are 2 breeds I can think of that are suppose to go broody real easy.