Broody hen question

Julie08

Songster
11 Years
May 19, 2008
1,375
8
163
Ontario, Canada
Are they not suppose to STOP laying when they are broody??? My hen has been broody for weeks but never stops laying. She never did wait for a clutch she started sitting on the first one day one second egg third etc......so she has been hatching a chick a day for the last 10 or so days. Okay but now its time to stop. But she just keeps laying and sitting, she's getting thin and needs to get out of this!!! I guess this means I have to move her and candle every day to see which egg is the new one?? I tried marking them but she just cleans off or pulls off everything I try...... she's got 5 left that should finish in the next 5 days but I don't want new chicks to develop in the newly hatched eggs. Can anyone help me out here?
 
YES, hens are definitely supposed to STOP laying when they are broody. I've been hatching eggs w/broody hens for 17 years and have never had a hen continue to lay when broody. Are you positive they are her eggs, and not eggs that another hen is laying in her nest?

When my hens go broody on a clutch, all the other hens like to lay their eggs in the same nest because they like to lay where there are already other eggs.

I just mark the original eggs with large, dark "X"'s in pencil. It seems to stay pretty well. Then when I'm gathering eggs I lift the broody off the nest, gather any eggs that don't have an "X", and put her back on.
 
My broody would getup an let others lay in her box. I eventually had to move her. her hatch took four days to complete. i have another who is broody right now, and I will move her tonight. She's been up in the rafters for two days,
 
she's all alone so yes I'm sure they are her eggs. I didn't realize she was doing it at first so now I got eggs all at different stages under her. I would love her to just snap out of it and get up eat drink get outside I feel so bad for her. I even went as far as to take all the eggs and give them to another broody hen but she just still kept sitting on nothing so I gave them back. Thanks for your help
 
I'm pretty new at this but when my hen went broody and I got to feeling sorry for her I put a small dish of food and water right in front of her in the nest.

She hatched the chick last week and is plump and healthy.
 
I put food and water right next to my broody too-she got up once a day to eat and drink, but I'm not sure she got up while hatching (only took 2 days).
 
I also put an X in pencil on the eggs I intend to hatch. I put it on the big end, so the hen doesn't rub it off.

Also, all of my broody hens have stopped laying. How strange that yours hasn't.
 
strange and rather annoying since she doesnt take care of the ones she has hatched so I have 25 chicks all a day apart from each other all over the place!!! (took me a while to figure out what she was doing) now its just time for her to stop shes got 10 eggs left to do as long as I keep removing the new ones.
 

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