Broody chicken wants to nest outside

[Ridgerunner]

After reading this thread I'm not sure how many broody hens you have in how many nests wherever they might be with however many eggs. What a saga. And some people think keeping chickens is boring.

My comments are about next time. If you have a broody hen and want her to hatch eggs and want her to hatch with the flock, collect all the eggs you want her to hatch and mark them. I use a black Sharpie but others use other things. Then start all these eggs at the same time. Remove any that are already there. You need to be able to tell which ones belong.

Then every day after the other hens have laid, collect all the other eggs and check under the broody hen. Remove any that don't belong. As long as you clear them out every day they are still good to use. Other hens will often lay with a broody hen as you noticed. On rare occasions a broody has been known to bring an egg from another nest back to hers so collect all the others in the other nests. This is how you avoid a staggered hatch, collect them all every day.

Also, if a hen can't cover all of her eggs some can get pushed out from under her, cool off, and die. Then those eggs get pushed back under her and others get pushed out to die. If she can't cover then all you often do not get great hatch rates. That's another reason to remove extra eggs daily, so she doesn't get too many.

When I was a kid one of my chores was to collect the eggs. That also meant any unmarked eggs under a broody hen. Some broody hens aren't bad, don't peck or anything when I stick my hand in their nest. But some can be downright mean. They can peck hard enough to hurt, maybe even draw blood. I really didn't want to check under some of those broody hens but the other option was to tell my father I was afraid of a chicken. No way was I going to do that. So I checked under them all every day when it was time to collect eggs. Sometimes you do what you have to do.

If a barefoot ten-year old kid in short sleeves can do that surely you can. And you can wear gloves and long sleeves for protection.

Good luck on your hatch(es), what ever is going on. This should be a great learning experience for you.

 

[Cazook]

...Nothing coming out of the eggs! I have the feeling this chicken is playing some sort of practical joke on me.

 

[Cazook]

One of the eggs in the incubator hatched. I snuck it under the hen today... how do you tell if they 'accepted' the chick? It just hid under her and disappeared, lol


There's another one that pipped at the wrong end, will keep an eye on it.

 

[Cazook]

and, picture

 

[bobbi-j]

What are you going to do with the eggs she’s on? Some hens will abandon the unhatched eggs to care for the chicks, others will sit tight and not care for the chicks.

 

[Cazook]

What are you going to do with the eggs she’s on? Some hens will abandon the unhatched eggs to care for the chicks, others will sit tight and not care for the chicks.

the eggs she's sitting on have been sat on for days longer than the ones in the incubator. by the time all in the incubator hatch, any that dont hatch from her clutch are likely to be dud anyway.

 

[bobbi-j]

the eggs she's sitting on have been sat on for days longer than the ones in the incubator. by the time all in the incubator hatch, any that dont hatch from her clutch are likely to be dud anyway.

If she’s been sitting on them for five days longer than the ones hatching in the incubator, they’re likely not going to hatch.

 

[Cazook]

If she’s been sitting on them for five days longer than the ones hatching in the incubator, they’re likely not going to hatch.

yeah i was wondering if maybe she was leaving them too long.

might try to candle some of them tonight once the sun leaves.

 

[Cazook]

got three healthy ones in with the broody now. had one egg die, i got concerned after no pip after 2 days rocking and took a look inside (safety hole), no movement. later on i realised it had died and opened it up, seems like it pipped into its own yolk. very unlucky

 

[Cazook]

she seems to have accepted the incubator chicks fine. they have been pecking and hanging onto her earlobes, climbing onto her head etc. she just tolerates it all, lol.

might have one more chick coming out. the final egg looks like it didnt develop properly, i put a safety hole but it just looks like liquid inside.

been bringing chick crumb and water to the nesting box. they're getting the real silver service. even some of the roos and hens came to see what was going on earlier. they left in a hurry once the growls started though.

one of the chicks was hiding under the 'helper hen' (thought I'd lost one, cue panic). so who knows if they're going to both help raise them or what. chickens be weird.