Broody hen left nest for 20-30 minutes

[MClean417]

My hen went broody in THE MOST POPULAR NESTING BOX, evidently. It was not unusual to find her and one or two other chickens trying to nest. After deciding to let her continue we marked the first 5 eggs, the next day there were eggs coming out from under her, we marked the next 7 so she had a dozen and took the rest. The next day we removed the unmarked eggs. THEN she started ending up on the nest next to that one and another one of two hens were on her nest. We moved those hens and removed unmarked. One day my helper picked up the chicken and there were only 11 eggs. I told them, sometimes they tuck them under their wing and my helper popped the wings open outside of the nesting box. So there were 11 eggs and a treat for the chickens under us. It was developing nicely too though I recommend candling. Last week, after all this shifting around I put the brooder cage up in my 2nd run and that night we candled the eggs and moved momma and eggs to the brooder. 10 eggs, saw movements in some of them, other eggs the shells are so dark you can just see they're not yolks. This morning, 21 or 22 days later, nothing but tonight 2 have hatched so far. Momma gets up once a day when brooding to eat, drink and excrete. This is normal and the heat difference just pauses developemnt a bit BUT it's not been really cold here. Plus, we had all those helpers. Have faith, they've been doing this a long time, make sure and use pencil to mark your eggs so you know they haven't c swapped any on ya. (They will tuck them under the wings and take them with them. Had that happen last year when Broody decided she wanted an egg that was in the nest next to hers. Our hatch this year so far

 

[MClean417]

Yes, when I get excited my inner princess sneaks out. I ain't proud of it but my wife is happy it don't happen when I see spiders. Then, I just go full ninja, so, it's a wash.

 

[lavendermarie]

My hen went broody in THE MOST POPULAR NESTING BOX, evidently. It was not unusual to find her and one or two other chickens trying to nest. After deciding to let her continue we marked the first 5 eggs, the next day there were eggs coming out from under her, we marked the next 7 so she had a dozen and took the rest. The next day we removed the unmarked eggs. THEN she started ending up on the nest next to that one and another one of two hens were on her nest. We moved those hens and removed unmarked. One day my helper picked up the chicken and there were only 11 eggs. I told them, sometimes they tuck them under their wing and my helper popped the wings open outside of the nesting box. So there were 11 eggs and a treat for the chickens under us. It was developing nicely too though I recommend candling. Last week, after all this shifting around I put the brooder cage up in my 2nd run and that night we candled the eggs and moved momma and eggs to the brooder. 10 eggs, saw movements in some of them, other eggs the shells are so dark you can just see they're not yolks. This morning, 21 or 22 days later, nothing but tonight 2 have hatched so far. Momma gets up once a day when brooding to eat, drink and excrete. This is normal and the heat difference just pauses developemnt a bit BUT it's not been really cold here. Plus, we had all those helpers. Have faith, they've been doing this a long time, make sure and use pencil to mark your eggs so you know they haven't c swapped any on ya. (They will tuck them under the wings and take them with them. Had that happen last year when Broody decided she wanted an egg that was in the nest next to hers. Our hatch this year so far

They always seem to go broody in the most popular nesting box! Thank you for sharing all of this and those chicks are so adorable!