Broody hen?? advice on letting her hatch

[lilnuggets]

I believe my one of my hens has gone broody. Anything special I need to do? When do I candle her egss, move her to her own space, discard bad eggs ect? Ive had a broody duck before and just let her do her thing but it was just her and my Drake. I have 14 hens total and 1 rooster and this is my fist broody hen.

A little background. None of my hens sleep in the nesting boxes. This one in the picture started spending all day and sleeping in the nesting box on Friday last week (7 days ago). She has never tried to peck at me when I get close she just puffys up really big and starts making lots of noise. I have moved her out of the box and taken the eggs and she is back in there in a few hours. We went on vacation on Monday this week (5 days ago) and came back to her sitting on 36 eggs so we have decided to just let her hatch what she wants.

All the chickens lay in the same nesting box of course. So I have marked the eggs she's been sitting on so I can remove the new ones as they are laid but how many eggs is too many for her to sit on? I already discarded 2 eggs that were cracked badly.

Any other tips? I no longer have my ducks so I can move her and her eggs to my old duck house/run so she can hatch them and keep the babies safe until they are big enough to mingle with the others.

 

[Mvan42]

I would only let her have as many as she can cover with her body. Looks like she isn t covering all of them. I have a broody now first timer letting a hen hatch, first time ever having a broody hen for me. Just going by what I have read. I also have moved mine to a coop by herself. I have read some wait until right before they are due to hatch to move the hen and eggs. Hope this helps.

 

[lilnuggets]

I would only let her have as many as she can cover with her body. Looks like she isn t covering all of them. I have a broody now first timer letting a hen hatch, first time ever having a broody hen for me. Just going by what I have read. I also have moved mine to a coop by herself. I have read some wait until right before they are due to hatch to move the hen and eggs. Hope this helps.

Thank you! I am hoping she will discard any non viable eggs like my duck did but figured I may be able to candle late next week and get her down to around 20 so she can keep them all covered.

 

[2 many chickens]

I would take some of those eggs away. That's just too many for one bird. She's not going to be able to cover them all no matter how much she fluffs and flattens her fat little self out.

 

[2 many chickens]

Sweet little thing, looks happy as a clam, thinking she hit the jackpot and going to have ten million babies lol

 

[lilnuggets]

Sweet little thing, looks happy as a clam, thinking she hit the jackpot and going to have ten million babies lol

Haha right! She is such a sweetheart. If she could hatch them all I bet she would. How many is a good number to let her sit on? And how should I pick which ones to get rid of? Just randomly pick from the outer edge or should I wait until it's been like 10 days and candle then remove the ones that aren't developing?

 

[Fluffnut]

The average number for standard hens is 12 eggs a clutch.

 

[lilnuggets]

The average number for standard hens is 12 eggs a clutch.

Okay so I will definitely need to get rid of a little more than half. Any ideas on the best way to figure out which one to take away?

 

[lilnuggets]

Update: went out and candled the eggs tonight. 21 had definite veins so I left those pulled the rest that looked like duds and cracked the ones open that I pulled out. Out of the 15 I pulled 2 had heartbeats when cracked and 1 had just started to develop veins but had no heartbeat.

My hen covers all the eggs I left but barely. When would be a good time to candle again and remove any that have stopped developing? I don't want to bother the eggs to much but I do still have to get under her daily to remove the new eggs that the other hens are laying. Luckily she doesn't care when I am searching under her and she just reorganizes her egg under her when I'm done.

 

[Jbently28]

I know it's a hard thing to do, but I would go ahead and cull out more eggs at the moment. Some of the eggs may get lost under the others and stop developing. Also, with that many eggs, she may accidentally crush them when getting on and off the nest. It's better to be safe than sorry. I would candle them again in about a week to check for progression.