Broody Hatching

[basketmom]

I am a newbie at hatching eggs... well to make a long story short I posted a few weeks ago because my 7 month old dominique went broody and I couldn't break her, so I put an egg under her. Well....today is day 9 and the air space is bigger and I definately see a dark area in the egg now. It's a brown egg so it is real hard to see. I don't see veins but I can see the air space and the dark area clearly. I have no idea what I am doing but thanks to this site I am going to try and let her hatch. The only bad thing is she has two more eggs in addition to the other egg and I did not catch those in time to remove them. So they are 6 days apart from the first egg, will that be alright? My other question is, she is in the coop with all the others and my coop is not large enough to seperate her towards the end so I will have to move her to our garage in a 2x2 brooder that we made. Will that be adequate space for her to finish the laying cycle? And when should I move her?

 

[chicks4kids]

Sounds fine to me - her temp. broody home. She won't need much space because she will hardly get off of the nest.

I'm not sure about the eggs being 6 days apart though...I've never been through it. Hopefully someone can jump in with their experience. I would think though, that she will sit on them and wait for them to hatch. If she doesn't smell any bad ones, I can't imagine her getting off of the nest. Just make sure there's food and water for mama and baby (ies)!!

Good luck

 

[Countrywife]

That sounds like a good seperation plan. I don't think MY broodies would sit for 6 days between eggs, the most I have seen is about 48 hours, then they get off the nest and abandon the unhatched. Somebody else may have better advice.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Sounds like all is going well so far! 2x2 shouldn't be too little space for her, she doesn't need a whole lot of space when all she's gong to do is sit there and occasionally get up to eat, drink, and poop. I put my broody serama hen in a storage tub and that's been perfect for her and her two chicks. Good luck, I hope she hatches something for you! It's really wonderful watching the hens raise their own chicks.

 

[basketmom]

Thanks for your replies