Broody Hen with no eggs, can I give her store bought?

[RuralChick83]

I have a hen that went broody. Problem is she is not very high on the pecking order and the other hens kept pushing her off to lay their eggs. She kept switching between 2 nests. I eventually created a nesting area just for her and put some eggs under her. I have been trying to candle them, but my husband lost my good flashlight and I have been using crappy flashlights to look. One of the brown eggs looked promising, but I could not check any of the green eggs. Today, I saw that the brown egg became a dud. Not sure if any of the green eggs have chicks or at what stage. Should I stop her broodiness now or is it possible to buy chicks from a store and put under her?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Can you use the light on your phone? Do you have a rooster?

 

[BDutch]

I would wait 3 weeks and see what will happen. I presume you have a rooster and there is a good chance the eggs are fertile.

Store bought eggs rarely are. Unless you can buy the more expensive Demeter eggs at an organic grocery store. But adding eggs later in the process gets problematic when the first -green eggs- hatch. The broody will abandon the other eggs after 2-3 days and leaves the eggs to die.

It's no problem if a broody only hatches 1 or 2 eggs. Bc they/he/she have a mother, the chick(s) don't need more siblings.

 

[RuralChick83]

I found a so-so flashlight to see better. I have 3 roosters, so some were fertile that I put underneath her. More than half were unfertile (I think some hens were still laying in that nest when she would get up), and I found a bunch of miscarriage eggs. There were 3 that I couldn't see well in. It was mostly black, but I didn't see any veins in the eggs. I waited a few days and checked them and they were cold. I haven't taken them out from under her yet. She has been sitting in that nest for about 4 weeks now. I think I need to get rid of the extra nest I gave for her and give her a cold bath to stop her broodiness.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Take the cold eggs out and discard them immediately. If they explode ... there is no smell worse! And they will contaminate any that are still viable and they will die too. Take out any that you are not SURE are still alive and get rid of them.

 

[Slothinc]

Definitely remove the bad eggs, and either give her some day old chicks (should be easy to find in your area using fb or other classifieds), or you could try with feed store chicks - just make sure you get the youngest chicks possible. If you go that route, put them under her tonight, and go out and check on them before you go to bed to make sure she hasn’t rejected them.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

In the future, when your hen goes broody, take all eggs away from her until she is committed. By this we mean she has stayed on the nest overnight at least 2 nights in a row. Three is better. Collect the eggs you want her to hatch in an egg carton, pointy side down, at room temperature until she is committed. Elevate one end of the carton and raise alternating ends every day. Mark the eggs. You can use a Sharpie. I draw a circle around them so I can tell easily that they are hers. Put the eggs under her. Every day remove all other eggs. They should hatch 21 days after you give them to her. If they have not hatched after 24 days I would remove and discard them, or ask BYC what to do. You can candle them along the way to check for signs of development.