Broody Hen sick

[tiffvitorino]

This is snowflake and she is sitting on about 8 eggs that are to hatch any day now. The past two weeks she has been having lots of runny poop and won't eat much. I have given her some vitamins and worms that she loves. I have been monitoring the water and she does drink a little. Im worried when the babies come they are going to be in the same pen with this mess. I keep cleaning it but she does it again. Also she has been pushing out eggs i put them back under her but she pushes them out again. Are these bad eggs? What else can I give her to get rid of this? Is it diarrhea?

 

[Eggcessive]

The eggs may be bad, but you can try candling them in the dark to see if they are still viable. I will take my sitting hens off the nest first thing in the morning and in late afternoon, and take them out into the yard where they usually poop and then eat or drink. I do this unless I witness them taking a break off the nest. If they have recently been off, they will usually run right back. You may want to give her a bit of egg, mixed with a tsp of plain yogurt for probiotics, with a little wet feed, just to make sure that she is getting something to eat. It does look like runny diarrhea, so the probiotics may help.

 

[tiffvitorino]

Thank you... I will make her that mixture and see how it goes.

 

[elaineinspain]

This is snowflake and she is sitting on about 8 eggs that are to hatch any day now. The past two weeks she has been having lots of runny poop and won't eat much. I have given her some vitamins and worms that she loves. I have been monitoring the water and she does drink a little. Im worried when the babies come they are going to be in the same pen with this mess. I keep cleaning it but she does it again. Also she has been pushing out eggs i put them back under her but she pushes them out again. Are these bad eggs? What else can I give her to get rid of this? Is it diarrhea?

When my hens go broody it is quite normal for them to have the most disgustingly smelly poops. My girls also often pooped in the nest. They would hold it in for as long as possible then have enormous poops one every day or two. They very rarely left the nest. They also pushed eggs out from under them. They know what they are doing. They seem to know when the chick inside has died or not developed. If I put the discarded eggs back under them I would notice a couple of days later that those very same eggs had somehow vanished. Broken and eaten by the broody is the only conclusion I could come to.