Broody hen question

[Sustained]

I have a silkie that's gone broody. After 4 days of her refusing to leave the nest I decided to give her some eggs that I was going to put in my bator. I gave her 10 eggs that I had been collecting from my flock. Well 2 days running now I haven't gotten a single egg from my other hens in the pen. I lifted her up and she now has 14. So obviously she's been collecting the other eggs in the coop. None of the other girls ever uses the corner she's in. Anyway, my question is how long will she keep putting more eggs in her nest? I'm more than happy to let her have whatever she wants to sit on but I'm curious. Thanks for any insights!

 

[HEChicken]

She'll keep collecting them as long as the other hens lay them. The problem (apart from the fact that eventually there will be too many for her to cover and the ones you gave her may end up out in the cold) is they will all be at different stages of development and that will mean the death of many fetuses, as at some point she will leave the nest to tend to the chicks that hatched first, and abandon any unhatched eggs.

What I do is to mark the eggs I give her to sit on. Then each day I lift her up and remove the eggs that were added to the nest that day. The hen usually doesn't care since she still has eggs to sit on, or at least she gets used to the routine of being lifted and having eggs removed. And, that way I still have eating eggs while allowing her to hatch the ones I chose to be hatched.

 

[Sustained]

I'm glad I asked then! She's covering the ones she has now just fine and I did mark them so I would know which ones they were. She growled at me a bit when I lifted her but took it just fine otherwise. I guess at least I know where to find the eggs each day when I go to collect