Broody chicken

[tilly1051]

Hi, nearly three weeks ago one of our brown hens started brooding. We recently bought some hatching eggs to incubate and we've put two of the eggs under the broody chicken, will she recognise she has new eggs and carry on brooding for another three weeks or will she give up? Thanks

 

[GitaBooks]

Welcome to BYC!

It really depends on the individual hen. Some are so determined they will just sit and sit and sit. However, to be on the safe side, you might want to buy an incubator in case she abandons them.

Best of luck!

 

[tilly1051]

Thanks for the advice, we do have an incubator standing by, is it possible that if she abandons the eggs they will be okay to go back into the incubator if we're quick?

 

[GitaBooks]

Eggs can last a few hours out from underneath a hen. However, this cooling means they will probably go dormant and hatch a few days later than usual. Keep an eye on her.

Hope it all works out!

 

[tilly1051]

Thanks! I didn't know that, I thought the odds of hatching just decreased. We will. She's very dedicated for a point of lay so there's high hopes but if it doesn't work out we'll put them in the incubator along with our other eggs. We put them eggs in at the same time as we put the others under the chicken so there shouldn't be a problem?
Thanks a lot

 

[GitaBooks]

Mixing the eggs shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure you don't open the incubator up a lot when some have hatched but the others haven't, so that they don't dry out.

 

[tilly1051]

We won't, made that mistake before
Cheers

 

[Waynesworld92]

My Ella (Cruella when she was broody!) became broody and I was a newbie but found what worked best for her was a broody buster! I didn't have any extra cage but used a Have a Heart fox catcher and it worked very well. (There was not a fox in it!) I elevated it to make it cooler underneath, put some food and water in it. After 2 days I let her back out and she returned to normal. Funny thing is all her sisters wanted the food in her cage! She started to lay again about 1 1/2 weeks later.