Broody bantam with 20 eggs

[NubieChickMamma]

Hi - I'm housesitting on a small fairly remote property that has some chooks. One bantam had three chicks about a week ago now, all seems healthy and well. A second bantam is sitting on about 20 eggs under the crawl space of the house - I managed to have a look today while she was out feeding! She's been MIA for about the same time as the other bantam who is her sister. Should I leave her alone or intervene somehow? She seems happy enough. There is no noise coming from the eggs, and I know 20 is too many. Should I move her to where her sister is with her three chicks, and perhaps move a couple of eggs so she doesn't stress to much? Any and all advice welcome.

 

[sourland]

If possible, I would candle the eggs and leave 8 of the most developed removing the rest.

 

[NubieChickMamma]

I have no idea how to candle or what to look for - sorry. I could Google, but can you possibly help here?

 

[Shadrach]

Hi - I'm housesitting on a small fairly remote property that has some chooks. One bantam had three chicks about a week ago now, all seems healthy and well. A second bantam is sitting on about 20 eggs under the crawl space of the house - I managed to have a look today while she was out feeding! She's been MIA for about the same time as the other bantam who is her sister. Should I leave her alone or intervene somehow? She seems happy enough. There is no noise coming from the eggs, and I know 20 is too many. Should I move her to where her sister is with her three chicks, and perhaps move a couple of eggs so she doesn't stress to much? Any and all advice welcome.

If you're house sitting then I would have thought one should contact the owners and ask if it's okay when they come home to have an army of chicks charging around the place. I am assuming the chickens belong to the house owners.
If the owners say no then I think you would be justified in saying ths isn't a problem you feel responsible for. If they so no and you feel okay about pulling the hen off her nest, destroying the nest and the eggs then that is all one can do.
The next thing is she sitting on bantam eggs, that is are there any full sized hens that may have contributed to the clutch?
If they are all her eggs then I've had a bantam hen sit on a dozen and hatch ten.
if the owners say yes.
If you can reach her nest, and if you can reach her eggs in the nest with reasonable ease then I would remove any eggs that are not hers and romove hers until the total is eight as suggest by Mr sourland above.

 

[NubieChickMamma]

If you're house sitting then I would have thought one should contact the owners and ask if it's okay when they come home to have an army of chicks charging around the place. I am assuming the chickens belong to the house owners.
If the owners say no then I think you would be justified in saying ths isn't a problem you feel responsible for. If they so no and you feel okay about pulling the hen off her nest, destroying the nest and the eggs then that is all one can do.
The next thing is she sitting on bantam eggs, that is are there any full sized hens that may have contributed to the clutch?
If they are all her eggs then I've had a bantam hen sit on a dozen and hatch ten.
if the owners say yes.
If you can reach her nest, and if you can reach her eggs in the nest with reasonable ease then I would remove any eggs that are not hers and romove hers until the total is eight as suggest by Mr sourland above.

Thanks - owner is overseas with limited contact - but was very happy to have some chicks. I will try to contact her again though, good point and - as much as I worry about them - it's probably not really my 'business'.

 

[NubieChickMamma]

Thanks - owner is overseas with limited contact - but was very happy to have some chicks. I will try to contact her again though, good point and - as much as I worry about them - it's probably not really my 'business'.

Oh also - some of the eggs could belong to her sister who was also sitting under the house. I've only just been able to gain access, but they could have been nest sharing - aww!

 

[NubieChickMamma]

Hi everyone, thanks so much for all the replies and advice - sorry I've taken so long to acknowledge those. I managed to reach the owner, who agreed that I should remove the eggs aiming to get down to about 5 that may hatch. Over time I have done that. I found a YouTube video that showed how to candle using your mobile phone, which is the only piece of 'equipment' I have, so that worked reasonably well, and I hope I left those eggs with more of a chance. If Fussy-britches under the house did lay all 20 eggs herself, I assume that incubation may have started a lot later, so I'll leave these eggs for another week to see if we have any pipping, if not I'll remove them. The owner returns on 1 January, so if any chicks do hatch she'll be here to manage those. The three chicks that hatched to a more sensible bantam-britches Mamma are doing really well, feathering up and starting to scratch around independently. Many thanks again for taking the time to help me out. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas - happy chooking