Brooding, Hatching, how does this work?

[moonlitfarms]

If you have a hen go broody on an egg, will she keep laying eggs the entire time she is setting or will she lay a few then stop? I have hesitated to ask the question and tried to find it on here but no luck.

 

[speckledhen]

She may lay an egg or two at the very beginning of her broody spell, but once she stops laying, that is when she's down for the 21 days or so it takes to hatch the eggs.

 

[moonlitfarms]

So if I just leave the eggs she "might" start setting? Right

 

[Krazy]

Yeah. She will probally lay more eggs before she starts sitting.

 

[speckledhen]

OR, she may never go broody at all. Most hatchery birds seem to have this bred out of them in favor of high egg production.