Brooding?

[missusduray]

OK I have 3 hens and I finally got them to lay their eggs in the house. One hen seems terribly teritorial of any nest. does this mean that she is going broody? there are now 5 eggs in the nest and none of the hens are sitting on it almost all day, should i remove the eggs? Should I let it be? Is she building a clutch before she decides to sit? can anyone tell me if this is normal behavior? How many days can the eggs be there and still be viable before they sit on them. HELP!
Kristyne

 

[missusduray]

Please, someone has to know about brooding hens. I really need to know what to do.
Kristyne

 

[missusduray]

Can anyone give me some advice about this. The egg count is up to 8. The hens will sit for maybe 20 min during the day and then i go in there in the morning and one of the hens is always on the eggs. I cant figure this out. Please help me!
Kristyne

 

[Whirlwind]

When my hen went broody she would not get off the nest at all. Would hiss and peck and spit if she could. Fluff her feathers out and just be totally hateful. You could always remove the eggs untill you are sure one is broody. When mine finally went she had one egg. I removed it{non fertile} she sat there for 2 or 3 more days on no eggs at all. Then I got fertile eggs for her. Hope this helped a little.


Mine lay in the morning and all use the same nest. Could be you are just catching them on the nest when they are in there laying. Sometimes it takes some of mine 30 min or more to lay.

 

[Buckguy20]

Quote:
With several different chickens laying in the same nest, it may compromise the viability of the eggs for hatching. My dad has Old English Game running all over his place and they will hide out their nests and sometimes have 18 or 20 eggs before they start to sit. Then they will hatch just about every one. Just natures way of working things out. Monty

 

[missusduray]

Thanks for the information. I have just been leaving the eggs for a couple days now. The oldest ones in there are from saturday. I am hoping that they will be fine. If no one decides to sit on them by friday, I will pull them and collect eggs daily from them on. I was hoping that they would sit, I would love to have more buff orps. I would like to have the little babies running around.
Kristyne