Broody hen now in January

[Lins_BE]

Hello all,

I live in Belgium, at the moment it's about 46°F here during the day, lowest night temp in the next week will be 35°F and one of my hens has gone broody. Now my question is if i can put some eggs under her or if it will be too cold for the chicks?

I didn't count on any broodies at this time, so i have eggs in the refrigerator at about 41°F, are they still good to brood? I haven't been turning, bur i read here at the forum that lots of people don't turn their eggs. If i can't put these under her, can i keep the eggs from the following two days and put them under her together on monday?

If i do it that way, should i put fake eggs under her right now and get the other eggs away from her until monday then? I have no idea when she started to sit on them, she wasn't last night, can i put those eggs on the side now and put them under her again on monday?

Lots of questions, i never had any chicks before...

Greetings from Belgium,
Lins

 

[chuckachucka]

It should be fine for a broody to hatch eggs in this weather as long as she is a reliable broody who knows what she is doing. In December I had a first time broody sitting on a single egg just to keep her happy but the chick died after 25 days in the shell. I had seen the egg several times half sticking out from under the hen so I think she wasn't sitting on it properly and it got chilled too much.

As for the eggs in the fridge, they will probably not be viable. A few hours in a fridge is sometimes ok,from my understanding, but after that their chances go down rapidly. I once tried to hatch an egg that had been refrigerated for a few hours and it was the only egg in a batch of ten that didn't hatch.

However, it won't hurt to try. So I would say collect the new eggs from the next couple of days and any that are with her now. Give her dummy eggs until Monday, then on Monday swap them for all the eggs you want her to hatch. That way they will all hatch around the same time (if they hatch). It won't hurt the hen to sit a couple of extra days on the fake eggs.

Turning the eggs is important but I think it is more important once the incubation period has started. For safety, I would turn the eggs you collect between now and Monday and the fridge eggs you intend to set. Remove the fridge eggs from the fridge and keep all the eggs together fatter end up somewhere where the temperature doesn't fluctuate too much (I.e. Not next to a window or radiator) until Monday.

Good luck with the eggs!

 

[Lins_BE]

Thanks for you reply, it was false alarm, she's back at it with the rest of the flock. I didn't want to break her broodiness since it's a campine and they don't go broody that quickly. I'll have to wait a little longer then.

 

[pineapple416]

I am going through a similar situation. We are hoping to hatch Silkie/frizzled Cochin chicks but are still working on it and trying to store fertile eggs. It is definitely a process. Good luck in the future!