BO hen laying on eggs. My first time. I need HELP!

[Gramma and Grandson]

This happened by accident. I guess we didn't collect the eggs in time or something. Anyway we have a broody hen sitting on we are not sure how many eggs. We put 6 more eggs under her after she got broody. We have never seen her get off the nest. She doesn't eat or drink when we offer it to her. Right now she is on her fourth day. She is still in with 15 other hens and the rooster. We are afraid if we move her into our big brooder she may quit sitting. We have no idea what to do. Do we need to candle these eggs like you do in an incubator? Any help would be wonderful.

 

[Debbienmousey]

Do you always keep feed available? If so then she most likely gets off in the mornings and afternoon/evening for feed/water, it's nothing to worry about if you don't see her getting off. You can always feel for her crop to see if she's eaten anything lately. Seeing that she's at 4 days in it should be fine for her to sit on all the eggs she currently has, but you don't want her to collect any more so you need to mark the eggs she's sitting on with either a sharpie or a pencil. (You'll probably need to remark later on if you use pencil, but it may be safer than marking with sharpie)

When it comes to hatching day will you be able to securely lock her and the chicks in the nest box until they all hatch? Or are their cracks at the back/bottom of the box where the chicks might be able to fall out? You need to be careful having the chicks around the other chickens (even at hatching), because, although not all chickens do this, I have seen adult chickens kill and eat baby chicks. Sad, but true :\\. So if you can keep them safe during hatching and make sure that she doesn't collect more eggs, nest hop, or have other hens break her eggs then it's probably fine for her to stay in the coop with the others for now. Then once all the babies hatch you can move them to the big brooder

 

[Gramma and Grandson]

Thanks so much for the help. We have been busy building a temp. breeder box. Mama is still on the nest. We have had to do some quick fixes. She got out of the nest once and got back onto the wrong nest. Had to put her in the right one. No easy feat. Had to put a fence around her in her box at first because one of the hens was grabbing her by her head and dragging her out of the nest box. Other than that things are going well. She gets out and eats and drinks every day now. The chicks should be here about July 6th.

 

[jen5680]

You could also try moving her and the eggs at night. If she is truly broody she will stay put.

 

[Gramma and Grandson]

She is truly broody. She is still sitting. Baby day is July 6th. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Although I have no idea what I am going to do with these babies. I don't have a seperate pen for them. I have a brooder that will work for a little while.

 

[Kelly G]

It could be something as simple as a dog kennel surrounded by a simple hardware cloth section to let them have a little excercise. At night, you can close them inside the dog kennel to keep them safe.

Just a thought

 

[littlecreekfarm]

not sure on that one! i had some marans hens hatch some eggs and i took the chicks away and put them in a brooder box to raise them myself. But i don't really know.