1st time broody wont leave nest. Pooping on eggs!!??

[polochic]

What to do? Wont this bacteria kill the embryos? Anyone have this happen before?

 

[enola]

Some broodies have to be forcefully removed from the nest a few times until they learn the routine. I never put food or water where they can reach it while they are on the nest. This only encourages them to stay on the nest until it is too late.

Make food and water available to her away from the nest, take her off the nest and put her near the water. You may have to do this a few days in a row before she gets the idea.

If she just wants to run straight back to the nest, let her. After a few days she will probably take time to eat and drink. Some times just moving around will cause them to poop before they get back to the nest.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

It seems each hen has her own component of brooding skills. Some just do a better job than others. Where are you keeping her? Does she have enough room to get up and go poop away from the nest? Maybe she just needs a bigger enclosure. Are her poops firm or runny? Maybe a little ACV in her water will help her digestion, firm up her poops & help her hold them in until she can get up off the nest.

Maybe she's just a ditz and doesn't know better. She may be one of those broodies that you have to take off the nest once a day and make her eat/drink/poop outside her box. With a skilled broody you don't have to do that. How dirty are the eggs? You could try to scrape/wipe/rinse off the worst of it & see if they hatch anyway. Or you could clean up the nest & give this hen new eggs to incubate.

Let us know how it all turns out.

 

[feather leg farms]

I am in the same problem as you. My showgirl hen is sitting on one of her eggs and one of my blue silkie eggs. She barely comes off them to eat. She comes off for like a minute in the morning and not at all in the afternoon. Since your case is her nor coming off at all, boil her a chicken egg in a little of grease. Hope this helps.

 

[polochic]

A few of the egss are really soiled. I will try to wipe them and will take her off the nest several times a day as u recomend. Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it! Btw, her poo is solid, not runny.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Try just taking her off one time a day. Give her about 5-10 minutes to eat/drink and make sure she poops. Once she gets moving she should poop right away. She shouldn't need to poop more than once a day. See if that makes a difference in the cleanliness of the nest.

And I wouldn't wipe/scrub too hard to clean the eggs, they were laid with the bloom to help keep them clean inside. Maybe just try to get the worst of it off & let Mother Nature take care of the rest.

 

[Judy]

Right, just once a day. The morning was the natural time for this for my broody (she would stand up when I opened the coop, so I let her out and she did her thing and returned.)

 

[polochic]

okj. got it. will keep you posted! THANKS!

 

[dancingbear]

The bloom gets rubbed off on the hen's belly anyway, I'd go ahead and wash the eggs, in warm water. I've done this and had them hatch just fine. With one bunch, they got washed multiple times, and hatched. The bacteria laden poop is a bigger threat to the embryos than soap and water. Poop contains not only bacteria, but digestive enzymes that can partially break down the shell, making it more susceptible to invasion by microbes.

I had to take one broody off the nest everyday like that, I only had to do it about 3 days before she caught on and got off on her own every day after that.

 

[polochic]

thks dancing bear!