Worried about my two Broody hens

[NeeCee51]

OMG, they are so cute...The ones that I got from the breeder are marked. The other two are not. I will try to candle them and see if anything looks positive. Thanks so much. I don't have an incubator but so want to get one. Thanks again..

 

[NeeCee51]

By the way what kind of chickens are those..they are so cute

 

[Naser]

I never move broody hens to eat. I check their food and water daily, they will be fine. the main thing is try to have them in a place that other hens can't access or they will lay in their nests.

 

[Kev]

Haha thanks for the kind words, they are Naked Necks. My favorite breed.

Egg marking is usually insurance for two main reasons- if there are laying hens that have access to the broody's nest and as a date reminder. Extremely useful if there happens to be eggs of different ages or if there are eggs from different birds/lines and you want to check for fertility. Maybe Pen A has no or low fertility but Pen B has high.... if the eggs were not marked and put under a broody or incubator, and half of the eggs are not fertile, the exact problem might not be figured out... Little things like that.

Absolutely no need to mark if one is very relaxed about the hatch and the hen is isolated by herself. Would recommend it if there is a chance of other hens sneaking in and adding eggs though- remove the unmarked ones daily.

 

[NeeCee51]

I have three hens and three nesting boxes. They have never tried to get in one of the boxes when there is another one in it. In fact they are kind of funny. The same hen always lays eggs in the same box. Right now I have two hens in the boxes they have always used and the third one just goes to the empty box which she has always used. I don't know if it's because they have always been together or what. They are all the same age and from the same hatch.

 

[lot to learn]

I have a Wyandotte that went broody 3 weeks ago. Just a few days before her 22 eggs (not all hers) should have hatched, she switched nests. I had been too tired to collect the eggs & I guess she decided the nest with about 12 eggs looked good. Her other eggs were cold... Today she's back to the old nest, but I had removed the first eggs so these are new. I'm guessing about 5 eggs. What do I do now?

 

[NeeCee51]

I have gotten some great information from these posts and have been encouraged to candle them to see if there is anything developing inside. I am going to do that when the hatch date comes. Good luck..

 

[Kev]

I have three hens and three nesting boxes. They have never tried to get in one of the boxes when there is another one in it. In fact they are kind of funny. The same hen always lays eggs in the same box. Right now I have two hens in the boxes they have always used and the third one just goes to the empty box which she has always used. I don't know if it's because they have always been together or what. They are all the same age and from the same hatch.

That doesn't happen too often, with the row style nest boxes, more usual they either lay in 'any' box or there is a favorite nest and most hens lay in that one. A common problem is a hen will go broody and sit in one nest... but come back to a different nest after a bathroom break... You've been very lucky.

 

[Kev]

I have a Wyandotte that went broody 3 weeks ago. Just a few days before her 22 eggs (not all hers) should have hatched, she switched nests. I had been too tired to collect the eggs & I guess she decided the nest with about 12 eggs looked good. Her other eggs were cold... Today she's back to the old nest, but I had removed the first eggs so these are new. I'm guessing about 5 eggs. What do I do now?

Ouch. This is an extremely common problem and is the reason for isolating broody hens whenever possible. My mother hen was in a pen with several other hens.. when she went broody, I picked up her nest(covered cat litter box) and moved it to an empty pen. No worries about other hens bothering her, going back to wrong nest etc..

If moving is not possible, I've put wire over a hen's nest and took her out for a break daily. This was with cases where multiple hens insisted on laying in her nest and I was not able to move her.


Anyways, if the eggs were left for a whole day or even a whole night, if it was not overly cold- maybe below 40F? the eggs could still be viable, especially if they were in the last week of hatching. They might take extra day or two to hatch. Put the hen back on the cold eggs, then candle the eggs a day or two later to see if they are still alive(movement).. if the eggs are all dead, just replace with a fresh batch.

You can either let her sit on the five.. or collect up a batch and then set under her in the next few days. Mark all of them as you have other laying hens in the same area. She probably will sit on these until they hatch.

 

[NeeCee51]

I think I'm the old mother hen. I check on them to make sure they are OK quite often. I'm just glad I don't have 15 or 20 to worry about. I will be glad when this first time is over. I really appreciate all your help getting me through this. Thanks again Kev...