Broody Hen Question - Will my Eggs Hatch?

[newchck]

HI all, I have a broody barred rock. She had sat on her eggs for 7 days, but our other chickens kept kicking her out of her nest to lay eggs. She would get right back on after they left, becuase of this we put her in her own small coop and run with some fresh eggs. The eggs were laid today but they were not sat on for about 6-8 hours. It is around 50 degrees here, will they still hatch? Sorry for the goofy question, haha! It is our first time with a broody hen.

 

[nuthatched]

How long has she been sitting? Have you candled them? It's not unusual for the broody to leave but it's odd for it to be so long.

 

[50-45-1]

If they were not began yet in hatching process, No they are fine. 50 degrees is not a problem.
Once they are started, we would hope they would not have that long of a cooling time.
Even so, I have had eggs hatch that were left and stone cold before I knew it. I got an incubator or different broody on them and crossed my fingers.
Good luck!

 

[Ridgerunner]

we put her in her own small coop and run with some fresh eggs.

That's one way to handle it. Make sure she cannot get out to go back to her old nest and that no other hen can get in with her. I'm not sure you needed fresh eggs but that is where you are now and it should work.

The eggs were laid today but they were not sat on for about 6-8 hours. It is around 50 degrees here

I trust she is now incubating them. If she is, you are golden. 6-8 hours is nothing before she starts incubating them, you could store them for over a week at that temperature and the eggs will still be viable.

That hen stored up a lot of excess fat, much more than a rooster ever stores. That fat is what a broody hen mostly lives off of. That way she can spend most of her time on the nest incubating the eggs instead of having to go look for food and water. But they do get off of the nest at times to eat, drink, poop, and maybe take a dust bath. I've had a hen that came off twice a day and spent over an hour off of the nest each time. I had another broody that regularly came off once a day for 15 minutes. I've had several I never saw off of the nest but I knew they were coming off since they were not pooping in their nest. They all had good hatches.

I don't know if your hen was actually being run off of the nest or if she was just taking her natural breaks and other hens decided to lay an egg in her nest. I've had that happen and I've had a hen crawl in with the broody still on the nest and lay an egg. Lots of different things can happen but you have taken the guesswork out of it. Good luck!