Broody Hen Help

[Lookin4space]

If you're sure that she's broody, you can give her all of the eggs you want and she'll hatch them. I've seen small orphingtons hatch over 20 eggs at a time. I read of a zoo once using one to hatch an ostrich egg! I don't know how that small hen can do it, but they do!

 

[Stephanie739]

I would make sure she is broody before giving the eggs. I try to keep some fresh fertile eggs around just in case someone goes broody, but I don't put them under the hen until I am fairly sure. I have several golf balls in my nests so I can just leave them in to (I hope) encourage broodiness. If she spends the night in the nest box, she is likely broody.

I also think I would limit the number of eggs to a small enough number that you can be certain she can adequately cover them all. She will be moving the ones on the outside to the middle and vice versa. If she can't cover them all, you might have a hard time hatching any because those on the outside would get too cold, just my two cents, but I'm new to this.

 

[Lookin4space]

When I was a kid I spent a summer with an old couple that were friends of my parents who raised thousands of pet store birds commercially. They also had just about every kind of exotic chicken imaginable, including some bantys that often got broody and would be used to hatch eggs from other chickens as well as ducks, turkeys, chukars, quail, geese, etc. I remember seeing so darn many eggs under them, wondering how in the world they could handle so many, but they all would hatch. They haven't invented an incubator yet that can compare to an old broody hen!