Missing chicken found and sitting on 23 plus eggs!!!!

[luckychik]

With hawk problems I was missing a chicken (plus we were gone on vacation for 2 weeks). I figured the chicken was just gone! . Well I have 4 nest boxes and none if my girls have been laying....so I thought! Anyway I have not been looking anywhere else but the nest boxes! Last night I checked and found 4 eggs in a nest box!! for some reason I looked in the coop a little more and found my missing chicken on 23 plus eggs!!!! Someone has been busy laying eggs!!! Now what? There is no way she can hatch that many eggs! Any suggestions on what to do with my egg hoarding momma want to be chicken????

 

[Kelsie2290]

OK, that is funny, wonder what the egg hatching record for hens is. It sounds like she has been sitting long enough you can probably candle them and see how many are developing. Assuming they are not all good, that should cull the eggs down to a reasonable number ... if they are all good, wellllll since she has been doing a good job so far, sounds like you are going to have a lot of chicks running around. How is she set up, are you going to leave her where she is or move her?

 

[Sheltiegal02]

if you have any broody hens you could put a few under the hen , and if they are fertile you could buy a incubator.

 

[luckychik]

No broody hens but I do have incubators! I really was not needing any more babies! I really wish I would have found this before she went broody!!!!! Maybe I will wait till a couple hatch and let her mother those then put the rest in a incubator!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

OK, that is funny, wonder what the egg hatching record for hens is. It sounds like she has been sitting long enough you can probably candle them and see how many are developing. Assuming they are not all good, that should cull the eggs down to a reasonable number ... if they are all good, wellllll since she has been doing a good job so far, sounds like you are going to have a lot of chicks running around. How is she set up, are you going to leave her where she is or move her?

x2 I'd leave her on all of them to see after you candle them...some probably won't be good and won't hatch out. Throw away the clear ones after a couple of weeks of her sitting on them.

If she is big enough to cover them and have them incubate successfully - with them inside the egg, she'll probably be big enough to cover them after they hatch...broody hens are awesome and save you a lot of work.

 

[luckychik]

Thanks! She's small. She's a Cochin/silky mix!

 

[lazy gardener]

Thanks! She's small. She's a Cochin/silky mix!

An other option is to candle them all, remove the duds. Then if she has more than a reasonable amount to comfortably set, (I think for a small bird the suggested amount is 6 - 8) you could leave her with that many and incubate the remainder, and return them to her after hatch or just before hatch. Since chickens can't count, she should be none the wiser. Has she been a Momma before? Sounds like she's incubating a barnyard mix of eggs and not just her own? That should be fun. I'm sure you'll be able to find takers for the rest.

 

[luckychik]

Never been a mom before! She's so cute guarding her bunch of eggs! Yes it is barnyard mix as much as I don't like it! I had one Cochin rooster that was in a seperate cage and I guess he was flying over having fun! When I hatched a bunch of silkies this spring I ended up with bunches of silkie Cochins!!!! He was mean I gave him to a friend where he is the only rooster! Anyway, barnyard mix it is! I guess the other hens I have are sneaking in laying eggs too! Idk why they only want to lay in one spot lol!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Thanks! She's small. She's a Cochin/silky mix!

Oh if she is a bantam 23 is too many, I'll agree!

 

[luckychik]

...

OK, that is funny, wonder what the egg hatching record for hens is. It sounds like she has been sitting long enough you can probably candle them and see how many are developing. Assuming they are not all good, that should cull the eggs down to a reasonable number ... if they are all good, wellllll since she has been doing a good job so far, sounds like you are going to have a lot of chicks running around. How is she set up, are you going to leave her where she is or move her?

Most of mine have hatched a couple chicks then the chicks jump out of the box and the leave the eggs to sit on the chicks! It would be nice to know the record! Bless this chickens heart it's just too many eggs!!! Plus this is her first time broody!!!! She may never go that way again if she thinks this is normal!!!! LOL poor chicken!!!