Broody hen - Do I presume the eggs will not hatch at 25 days.

[freda]

Hi Everyone

Our broody hen has been sitting on eggs for 25 days now and nothing has happened. Do I presume that they are dead. They were fertile eggs and she removed 1 herself on day 20 but continues to sit on the others. Candling gave me little information from a blue shell. Any advice would be gratefully received.

Freda

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum!

Glad you joined us, just wish it were with a different question.

You might look at this thread for ideas. A broody can be early or late, but you are certainly way out on the limits.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=496077

 

[freda]

Thankyou for that info. I will try float test before giving up. Just another question, if they are dead is it appropiate to get some more fertile eggs and place her on them. She seems to be healthy, we remove her daily to eat, drink and poo. As we have no back up incubator is it likely that she will stay broody for long enough to try again.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That is hard to answer. Some will stay broody as long as they have eggs. Others might give up before another three weeks passes. Personally, I'd try it but not with real expensive eggs.

 

[freda]

Hiya

Just to let you know that I followed your advice and bought 6 welsummer fertile eggs for £4 and our broody hen continued to sit on them for a further 21 days. She stayed well and healthy although we did remove her daily to have dust bath etc. On day 21 hatched 3 healthy chicks, on day 22 she came off the other eggs and has become a perfect mother, protecting the chicks. A real success, thankyou for your advice.

Freda.

 

[teresa-78]

Quote:

Yey I am so happy it worked out for you, we need pics

 

[freda]

Hi teresa. I have photos taken yesterday but I am hopeless at getting them onto the forum I have managed to upload - any clues how to get onto this page?

 

[sophiejw]

Go to Uploads at the top of this page, then click on choose, then find the photo in your computer (like when you choose an attachment for an email). Check the box that says to resize it. Click select.

Then once it's uploaded, copy the text in the second box below the photo into your post onto the forum, write the rest of your post and when you press submit it will bring up the picture.

Hope this helps

 

[freda]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/90815_chicks_001.jpg

Here are out 3 chicks with their mum. Hope this works. Excuse my ignorance.

Freda.

 

[sophiejw]

They are cute

You need to copy and paste the text in the second box under the pic so it has "

after for it to put the pic into your post. The text in this box does this so you just copy and paste it.

Hope this makes sense. The chicks are lovely