31 Eggs under my hen . . . :O

[farmer07]

I got some Road Island Reds in April, they were pry about 3 months old. They started laying in June and about 2-3 weeks ago I decided to let my one hen nest hers. She is now sitting on 31 eggs (as of today) and is adding 2 a day! I was really excited about this but yesterday one of the first ones hatched and its MIA! I'm thinkin one of the roosters ate it. I have 4 in the group, cuz I havnt gotten around to butchering them yet.
Can I move my hen and her eggs to an rabbit hutch so when the rest of them start hatching I dont have to worry about him eating the next ones? By the time I get her out of the hutch the roosters will be gone, so I shouldnt have to worry about them later.
And is it normal for a hen to keep laying eggs, she's got the nest box plum full, some days the eggs are double stacked! LoL!
(I'm waiting for the day when its like a pyramid of eggs, like the cartoons show)

 

[Texasmja]

Wow it is amazing she can even cover that many eggs. What size hen is she?

I tried moving a broody hen and her eggs and she did not like it, so I just sectioned off the coop where her nest was and all was well. She raised 12 chicks. When they were about 3 weeks old I slowly started integrating them in with the rest and everyone did well.

 

[mkcolls]

from Ohio!

Broody hens will "steal" eggs by rolling, or tucking them under their chins, really just about any method to get them back to their nest.

Even if your broody hen is large, 31 is a lot of eggs for one hen to cover. Every hen is different, but that would be a lot of chicks for one hen to care for as well.

Moving is an option, but the hen will let you know if she is willing or not. She may try to move them back to the original nest, or abandon the eggs altogether. Be very careful with the eggs that have pipped, or may be zipping. With that many eggs you will have a staggered hatch over many days.

Good luck, and please keep us posted on how she does. Pics too.

I'm subscribing.

 

[farmer07]

I thought after they started hatching I would turn the heat lamp on in the coop. If I fence off part of the coop just for her and her chicks the older ones wont be able to run them out from under the heat lamp.

If I fence off the coop where the boxes are my other hens might have a problem laying?? I'm getting 3-4 eggs a day from 4 other hens in my coop -- I would still like them to lay. The other option is to put the roosters in their own little dormatory (the old grainery), if the hens would get along ok. I seriously think somebody ate my baby chick and I not sure who. I searched the hen house up one side and down the other for that little guy and he is GONE! ;(

The hen that is nesting is the one in my profile pic -- she's a fairly small hen really. 4-5# maybe. She's young, I'm guessing like a Jan-Feb Hatch? She was just about fully feathered in April when I bought her, kind of in the half chick/half chicken stage This pic was taken about 10 days ago, I'll take another tmro of all her eggs, its pretty cool to see! She had I think 12 eggs in this picture.

 

[HEChicken]

I would separate her. You really don't want other hens adding their eggs to her clutch because if they are all set at different times they will hatch at different times too, only once the first eggs have hatched, she will abandon the nest to care for the chicks, and the rest of the eggs will be goners.

I would separate her on about a dozen eggs, and take the rest away.

 

[PuffyChick]

Fascinating!

How would you know what eggs to take away?

 

[HEChicken]

How would you know what eggs to take away?

You could candle them and try to leave a dozen that are at roughly the same stage of development. Or just take all of them and give her a dozen fresh eggs. However if she has already been sitting awhile, that would be hard on her, to have to start over and sit for another full 3 weeks.

 

[farmer07]

This is a picture from the nest today. I tried candeling a few but I think I need to do some more research and figure out how to "read" them better. Now that I know they can "steal" eggs, it seems like that could be a possability. Some of the eggs are a little differant in color/size -- I didn't know they would actually "steal" eggs. Chickens never seize to amaze me! LOL!
I moved her and the eggs to the rabbit hutch today so we'll see how things progress.

 

[mkcolls]

farmer07:

Update please. What has happened to all those eggs? Any little chicks running around?