Broodies

[orpington123]

I have a silkie bantam 1 year old hen. She sits on the eggs for over 24 hours then gets off and before long hops back on but in the meantime I feel the eggs and their are cold. Will they hatch ? Thanks in advance

 

[Cntry1958]

How many eggs is she sitting on? I would mark a few for her to hatch and remove some if you need to. She will leave her eggs from time to time during the day to eat and drink and go to the bathroom. It sounds like she is doing ok as she is back on her nest. Since this is her first clutch of eggs I would leave her alone for a few days to make sure she continues to sit on them. She could steal eggs from others so mark her like 3 or 4 eggs and check the nest each day for extra eggs if she lets you. Remove the extra eggs each day. Between 5 and 8 days I would candle them to see if they are developing at all you should see spider like veins if you hold a flash light to it. Best of luck to you and your soon to be momma.

 

[orpington123]

she is sitting on seven. should she guard her nest as when i put in my hand she runs away frantically? she has already hatched out a clutch so she has been persistant. thanks for the time you spent replying

 

[omlet the chicken]

I would add at least five more fake (marked) eggs to her nest. That is unusual in my experience for a hen to get broody sitting on less than twelve eggs. That might be why she keeps getting up so often. If you add more fake eggs her motherly instincts will kick in when she sees them and she should sit. Also I would put some sand (dust bathing) and some food and water near her nest, but far enough so she can’t reach it seated on the nest. This could help her not stray too far from her nest to make her forget where her eggs are. Good luck I hope all of your eggs hatch out healthy and happy!!

 

[omlet the chicken]

Also don’t over stress it. Your hen is an experience mother and she knows what to do. It is very natural for the hen to hope off to sun bathe, dust bathe, eat, and drink. The eggs will probably be fine left cold for about thirty minutes a day. Where I live I have never experienced a problem with that because it is VERY hot here and is usually over 95 in the summer so my eggs are just fine sitting in the shade for a little bit.

 

[orpington123]

thanks

 

[preciouspanda]

I have a 1yr old silkie and I have let her sit on 3 eggs now couple of weeks my question is she is sitting in the coop where they all sleep and wondering if I should move her or what and if so should I move inside house with me I have a just a nesting box with door and stuff in same pen nobody uses and she doing a great job sitting on them I just have my silkie rooster 5 frizzles and an Wyandotte with a bum leg that goes in the coop with her at night and I just don’t wanna have any problems from other chicken when they hatch fingers crossed what should I do? They all get along good together too

 

[MIChickandGuinea]

My silly broody (black marans, first timer) does wander off and forget where her eggs are. She often gets back up in the nesting box after eating/drinking, but gets into the wrong compartment. Her eggs have felt cool to the touch many times when I've checked on her. We don't actually need more chickens - she was just so broody that we wanted to give her some eggs to help her through that powerful, natural compulsion. I candled the eggs a couple days ago, thinking they must all be dead because of how often I had found them untended (I mean ... she has spent MOST of the time sitting on them these past almost 3 weeks, but they have definitely been left unattended more than I would have thought would be a good thing) ... Two of the eggs are completely empty and two are PACKED full, and you can see definite chick features in them, plus a big air space at the ends. So something has been developing. Tomorrow would be the first day we would expect to see hatching, if it would happen. Just wondering it poor brainless broody has taken good enough care to allow proper development and hatching... any thoughts?

 

[orpington123]

Leave her to it

 

[preciouspanda]

Great news my broody silkie has hatched 1 egg she been sitting on today