Broody Hen

[Swilso3]

My Hen got Broody and climbed up on the laying box and started sitting on eggs. I caught the other hens climbing in with her and laying their eggs and she keot them warm. Craziest thing i ever saw. She has 10 eggs. I check on her and she gets out and i felt the eggs and they were cold. I said well, this is her first hatch. I figured they wouldn't hatch. Saturday she hatched 1. Jumped off her eggs and was on the ground with the chick. I took the chick from her and she got back on the eggs. Tonight i heard loud peeping. The chick must have fallen out of the box, which is 12 inches off the shavings, and was hiding in the shaving cokd and screaming. Moma didnt help it, but luckily the flock didn't harm it. I rescued it and put it in the brooder. It was cold and fluffy. Im hoping it will make it. So eggs can get cold and still hatch? Amazing

 

[hysop]

Yes, I wish I had known that a year ago. My hen had gone broody and was on day 21 and long story short stopped sitting on them. They went cold and I thought they were done for. Had I known they stood a chance I would have ran to buy an incubator. 30 eggs that were practically ready to pip but my ignorance at the time killed them for good.

 

[CindyinSD]

I haven yet had any truly broody hens, but I've read a lot about them on here. First, yes eggs can get cold and still hatch as long as the cold doesn't last too long and as long as it's not too severe. If they freeze and crack though, they're dead for sure. Second, first year would-be moms are often unreliable. Some folks don't allow them to hatch eggs because they're unpredictable and may abandon the nest or not stay on it enough, etc. Third, letting the other hens lay eggs in the broody's nest is a problem since they don't all hatch together.

The broody needs her own broody cabin and yard adjacent to or inside the flock's run and/or coop. This protects her from others laying all sorts of eggs at various times in her nest. She should only have the number of eggs she can simultaneously cover and she should begin brooding them full-time all at the same time. Moving her to the broody cabin can be tricky, but there's a lot written about that (and so much more!) on this topic.