Broody hen troubles

[PD-Riverman]

No suggestions on incubators?

Get this one with a turner----You will be Happy. I love mine even though I use the cabinets mainly you see in my pictures.
http://incubatorwarehouse.com/hova-bator-incubator-circulated-air.html

 

[Teila]

Hey davidschaffer .. sorry, no experience with incubators here, only broody hens

 

[davidschaffer]

The hen is very persistent. I have had to take her off the nest every time I go and check on them. I am 99% sure she has been brooding for almost 2 months now. The new broody hen seems dedicated but she keeps letting the origanal back in the nest with her. I candeld around 20 eggs and kept around 10 that look very developed. I marked them with a red marker and will give it a week or so. I also changed the straw and dusted. If nothing happens, I'm buying an incubator.

 

[Teila]

Hey davidschaffer if you want to break your hen from her broodiness you are going to have to not allow her access to a nest box and not allow her to hunker down anywhere she can be comfortable and brood. Granted, she may just give up on her own but this might takes weeks and her condition will continue to deteriorate.

If you research breaking a broody, there are a few methods but I find the crate method works the best for me.

Basically, the broody is in a crate, raised slightly off the ground to allow air flow and cool those hormones down.

In the crate she has food, water and a roost, but nowhere to get comfortable as such. Some people leave their broody in the crate 24/7 but I usually just leave mine in there during the day then pop her on the roost with her flock mates overnight; ensuring I am up early and put her back in the crate before she can get to a nest in the morning.

Depending on the determination of the broody, she may need to be in the crate for anywhere from 2 to 4 or 5 days.

 

[PD-Riverman]

The hen is very persistent. I have had to take her off the nest every time I go and check on them. I am 99% sure she has been brooding for almost 2 months now. The new broody hen seems dedicated but she keeps letting the origanal back in the nest with her. I candeld around 20 eggs and kept around 10 that look very developed. I marked them with a red marker and will give it a week or so. I also changed the straw and dusted. If nothing happens, I'm buying an incubator.

David, you seem so frustrated with this!! I have posted many times on how I set my broodies. I have set around 150 broodies in the last 3 years and the only frustration was selling all them chicks---LOL. Out of 150 broodies, all 150 hatched 99% of all the fertile eggs I put under them. No Problems what so ever. Way better than trying to use a incubator for small scale. Its simple and If you want to try my way---you can look under my name for my post and find probably several post on my way of doing it. I am not saying My way is the best---or better than anyone else way. I am just saying the way I do it has worked every time for me----probably 150 times in the last 3 years alone-----100% effective. That's pretty good hatching if I do say so myself!

 

[davidschaffer]

Thanks for the advice. I have placed the origanal brooder in her own cage area and I think by tomorrow she will be back to normal. The new brooded is on eggs that I am hoping are still alive. When I candled them they were very developed and appeared to have the air bubble on one end. If they don't hatch invite next week, I may start fresh. The problem with this is the new broody is not letting anybody lay any new eggs near her so now I need to find where they are laying . I tried to find a post that describes your method of hatching but there were so many I couldn't locate one that described your specific set up. Could you point me in that direction? Thanks

 

[shellina]

Hi all I have a broody chicken and she's been lying on her eggs for about four weeks and none of them have hatched should I toss the eggs or should I give it like another week I really need help with this one thanks so much
- shellenia

 

[rebrascora]

Firstly, do you have a cockerel/rooster that has been mating her? The eggs will not hatch if they have not been fertilised. Apologies if that sounds like an obvious question but some people don't seem to realise that it takes two to tango for hens as well as us humans.

Secondly, has she been sitting in the nest, incubating the eggs day and night for 4 weeks or was she a bit hit and miss at the beginning or was she just starting to assemble her clutch of eggs 4 weeks ago.

Thirdly, how many eggs does she have? If she has too many and can't cover them all, all the time, then that may have caused some of them to chill and then the hens rotates the eggs and some different ones get chilled.... that can lead to a late hatch (but not a week late) or the foetus dying.

Could the broody have been trapped off the nest for a long period of time or got back onto the wrong nest by mistake after a broody break and the eggs got cold?

Have you candled the eggs at any point? If so, was there any development when you checked?

If she has been sitting tight for 4 weeks then something has gone wrong, however I would listen for any sound from the eggs. If no sound, float them in a bowl of warm water and look for movement and if none, select one and carefully crack it outside somewhere where it can be buried and the smell won't be a problem and do it at arms length..... beware they can explode! Once you break it, it should be obvious if there has been any development or not,,,, ie the egg was fertile and there was some development but it died at some stage for some reason or the egg was infertile and was never going to develop.

Sad for the hen and you might have to break her of her broodiness even after you take the eggs away.....search broody buster cage for more info on that..... as some hens will not give up until they get chicks and brooding for too long can damage their health.

Good luck and do be careful as those eggs can be pretty explosive and stinky.

 

[shellina]

Thank you yes we have a rooster every morning he gives us a little show LOL but we do know that he has mated with her unfortunately she has at least 20 eggs but 4 brown eggs has been under her the entire time I have candled it and the egg looks all black inside except for the tip of the egg it's somewhat see through and it's pretty heavy do you think I should let her sit on it for a few days more or throw it away and start again with another chicken

 

[rebrascora]

20 eggs is far too many. I take it that you have allowed other hens to lay in her nest after she started setting..... this creates problems and jeopardises all the eggs because as I said, she cannot keep all of them warm enough and as she rotates them, some chill and die but then get moved back underneath her, causing others to get pushed out and chill and possibly die. If those brown eggs have definitely been under her for 4 weeks then this is probably what has happened to them, but I would still listen for any sound and do the warm water float test before breaking them open. There is nothing worse than chucking an egg only to see a live chick prematurely hatch as a result and die because you made a mistake.
I would probably candle all the other eggs and get rid of any that are clear or in the very early stages of development and leave her with whatever is left for another week and see if anything hatches,

In future, if you are going to set a broody, either mark her eggs on the day that you set her (a line drawn right round the circumference with a sharpie pen makes them easy to differentiate from newly laid eggs) and remove any others that are laid into her nest on a daily basis, or make a broody pen and let your broody have peace and quiet on her own nest, without having other hens clamber over her and lay on top of her. What has happened is not fair to your broody hen or the chicks that have died in the shell as a result. In a more natural set up, the hen would sneak off and lay into a secret nest until she had a clutch of her own eggs to incubate. If your broody hens don't have the opportunity to create their own secret nest away from the flock, then you should be prepared to make a private nest for them. They like a nice semi dark, quiet place. Or at the very least, remove any extra eggs each day.

Good luck with salvaging some of them.