Broody Banty

Kmac1

ChickenAddict
May 22, 2016
79
14
56
Kingfisher, Oklahoma
I have a bantam hen that started sitting on one of her eggs and four other eggs full size. That was 3+ weeks ago, now she has 15 full size eggs which I know is way to many. Her egg hatched and was killed by the RIR that has been laying in the nest with her. Should I remove all but 6-8 eggs and see if they will hatch or just remove all of them. Not sure what to do. I guess I could get an incubator and put them all in there and try to hatch them. Thanks.
 
I'm quite new to broody topics, but I also have a broody bantam. I left 6 eggs under her and marked these with small piece of band-aid, two eggs are small (one is hers) and 4 full-size. I can't imagine that she could properly hatch more than this number of eggs. She's only about 900 grams.
I have also community nest box, where all my hens used to lay. It is rather large, so they continued to lay there when my bantam got broody and the bantam just stole their eggs, carefully rolled these under her as soon as other hens had left. But I collected the unmarked ones once a day. Otherwise, the embryos start to develop and I can't eat the eggs... The broody also can't sit on eggs forever, waiting until the newly laid eggs hatch... Now I have another nest box for not broody hens and the broody one can have her privacy.

So, I would put the excess eggs into incubator, if they are fertilized and already developing. If the eggs are just laid and you don't wish so many chicks, then I would consume these eggs.
 

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