Broody hen.

[Fishsticks06]

I have a broody hen sitting on a clutch of a lot eggs that I’m planning to candle tonight. She’s quite far along, I think about 2 weeks now. If I have too many viable eggs, what should to cull them? Should I get and area to separate her from the other chickens? I have 2 roosters so I don’t know how they would take to them. My hens are also very aggressive and I’m sure they’d kill a chick. They free range but they all stay in the shade during the day. What should I do?

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

When you say "a clutch of a lot of eggs", exactly how many eggs is she incubating? After you candle all the eggs tonight and determine how many are viable, and also whether they are at the same stage of development, please report back here. Hens tend to be more aggressive to chicks than roosters do, but if you feel your hens will probably try to kill the chicks, your intuition is likely correct. There is a risk that your broody may quit sitting on her clutch if you move them before the first chick hatches, but that is a risk you may need to take.

 

[Fishsticks06]

When you say "a clutch of a lot of eggs", exactly how many eggs is she incubating? After you candle all the eggs tonight and determine how many are viable, and also whether they are at the same stage of development, please report back here. Hens tend to be more aggressive to chicks than roosters do, but if you feel your hens will probably try to kill the chicks, your intuition is likely correct. There is a risk that your broody may quit sitting on her clutch if you move them before the first chick hatches, but that is a risk you may need to take.

Hey, sorry for the late reply;

She was sitting on 5 eggs, but only one was viable. I assume it died in the egg because after a couple of days it didn’t hatch and eventually started to smell awful so I threw it out. When I candled it, it seemed like it took up the entire egg, so I assume it was close to development but died somewhere along the process. Thank you for responding.