Broody hen won't accept egg

[LongRanch]

Any tips on what to do when a broody hen just wants to sit on an empty nest? I have ordered fertile eggs that I'll be putting under her tomorrow... but I gave her an egg (not fertile) yesterday (just to keep her happy) and she kicked it out of the nest and ignores it completely. She lays near it but not on it. I'm afraid I'll be wasting my money on these fertile eggs, if she abandons them... Any tips?? I was told to try putting them under her at night time.. anything else?

 

[Poultry parent]

warm the eggs before you put them under her and put them under her at night so she can't really see what you're doing

 

[LongRanch]

Thanks, I'll try that. Will she stop moving around once the eggs are under her? She doesn't always lay in the same spot. If I come close to her pen, she moves to a new spot, further away from me and lays back down. I'm worried when I try to put the eggs under her, she's just going to move again. Should I make the ex-pen small so that she is basically forced to stay in the same spot for a while?

 

[Poultry parent]

if you think that's is what you should do, it's of personal preference

 

[LongRanch]

I put the six eggs under her lastnight. ^_^ The only problem is, she's only laying on three of them this morning. Think she will figure it out eventually?

 

[LongRanch]

Well, now she won't lay on them at all. Hasn't in the past hour. It's cool in the room (not room temp and no way to make it such) so I'm afraid I have wasted my money. The eggs are cold. I keep trying to shoo her over there but she is not interested. She frequently stands up to pull off her belly feathers, and then goes and lays elsewhere, not on the eggs. What can I do?

 

[SunHwaKwon]

How long has she been "broody"?

It kind of sounds to me like something other than broodiness because my broodies won't pass up an egg to sit on, but I am also new to all this. Hopefully someone else chimes in.

 

[LongRanch]

She's been broody for 5 days. I moved all of the straw out of her ex-pen, except where her eggs are, and that has helped. Now she lays on them...kinda. A few are still out beside her. :-/

 

[LongRanch]

Now she is just laying on the concrete. I don't get it! She just lays there, all fluffed up like she is on eggs... But the eggs are not under her. I assume these ones are no longer viable now?

 

[SunHwaKwon]

It depends on how old they are. Viability goes down after a week, they say. However, I found one of my guinea's nests and it had 57 eggs in it. I stuck 43 in the incubator and 30 started developing. At day 19 out of 28 I still had 16 good ones. So, at an egg a day that is showing that they were still somewhat viable at 30 days, though we can assume I am now down to the 16 freshest eggs, which are going strong despite having been out in the dirt and sun and rain for that long. These are guinea rather than chicken eggs, but I'm just showing you all is not lost. You just need to come up with another plan. You can get a cheap incubator for $40, and some people have decent luck with them. Or you can take your chances with her.