Broody hen wont get up off the nest to eat or drink

[joker468]

Thanks everyone! This is my first time ever to have a broody!

Cant wait!

Good luck with your soon to be new momma! It is best not to disturb her too much. If you candle the eggs at about 10 days, which I recommend to pull out bad eggs so they don't explode, do it at night when she is calmer. They are sort of dazed and confused during the night. Work quickly and quietly and she will never remember you were there. Another option is to candle while she is off the nest during her break time, if your hut is dark enough that works too. Mine is dark so I did most candling at their break times. I feel real good that you are going to have great success ! Keep us posted !

 

[bobbi-j]

I leave my broodies alone and let them figure it out. I'm of a mind that chickens have been hatching and raising chicks for centuries without my help. If they weren't capable of taking care of themselves, they'd be extinct. Now, I've heard of the occasional broody that *might* have starved to death on the nest. I guess I'd just call that natural selection. Or, maybe there was something wrong with the chicken in the first place. Sounds terrible, I know - but if I have a chicken that won't feed or water itself, I don't have the time to do it. Unless you're watching your broody 24/7, you don't really know if she's getting off the nest or not. They tend to want to be secretive when they do. Good luck!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I have a broody Australorp who will not even get up off the nest to eat or drink. ...Should I take her off every day?..

Fortunately hen and other birds have been hatching chicks for much longer than we humans have been on Earth to assist them with this task. I also expect that hens and other birds will be hatching chicks long after the last human has become a fossil.

Leave the hen alone! Chickens have little in common with salmon that naturally quit eating and soon die after entering fresh water to reproduce.

Hens (and all chickens for that matter) know when to eat and know when to drink. Setting hens (aka brood hens) will naturally leave the nest every third or forth day to eat, drink, and dust bathe. This is how nature designed the hen. Your assignment is to be sure she has food and clean water available when she needs it. Your eggs start to cool off the instant the hen leaves the nest, don't think that they don't. Anything else is a violation of the laws of physics. It's like saying that you can crank and drive your car to work for three weeks without fuel or some other power. There is a very real possibility that interfering with a sitting hen by repeatedly removing her from the nest will cause her to abandon the nest resulting in a total failure of any of your eggs hatching.

You can always tell when a hen leaves her nest to eat and drink. When she does she will pass a chicken poop that looks more like it came from a Saint Bernard and this poop can be winded from a considerable distance. Since hens don't sweat I would be unconcerned about dehydration (reread the third paragraph's first sentence) Your hen is closely related to the wild Red or Gray Jungle Fowl. Chickens can handle humid but shady heat very well thank you. Shady but moist heat is the working definition of a jungle. Sunny and dry heat (direct Sun) however can kill a grown chicken in as little as 5 minutes, I've seen it happen. I have spent 100s if not 1,000s of hours sitting on an upturned feed bucket watching both my chickens and the chickens of others. When I feed in the afternoon heat not one hen, pullet, rooster or cockerel would venture out of the protection of the shade of large trees to get to their only source of water, a constantly flowing limestone spring chocked with watercress even though that spring was no further than 150 feet from where I fed them their evening pellets and scratch. Is it any wonder then that when a hen can pick and chose her own nest location that she choses a dark spot or corner to lay in?

 

[Farmgirl1000]

What do ya'll think i should use to candle her eggs?
I tried a LED flashlight and it is not bright enough to see through at all.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

What do ya'll think i should use to candle her eggs?....

A large tin coffee can with an approximately one inch hole cut in the bottom and an old fashion un-shaded say 60 watt light bulb in it works well. In my younger days I stared for hours at a mechanized candling machine with a bright movie projector bulb as the light source. Remember when you candle eggs to do it in a dark room. The amount of light while important, is not as important as the contrast between light and dark.

 

[Farmgirl1000]

YAY!! They all hatched this morning ! Thanks for the help guys!

 

[ShinShien]

Kinda got the same issue, except this australorp HAS pooped in the nest. Is there a way to get dried poop off the eggs or should I not bother? First time ever using a broody hen, so I know nothing.

 

[iwiw60]

YAY!! They all hatched this morning ! Thanks for the help guys!

Pics, please!!! I'd love to see the new fuzzy-butts!!

 

[Below frigid]

My first broody too. Want to switch the golf balls for eggs tomorrow, but she is like she is on opiates! It worries me!