broody hen

[backyardpoultry]

today i noticed one of my hens was sitting on the one egg she layed today. I was just wondering if she will continue to accumulate her own eggs to sit on and if she will be able to "incubate" the eggs until they hatch and also if i will be able to give her more eggs from other hens because i have different breeds of hens and two of my hens match my cock so i want to get some pure breeds out of it. and lastly is there a limit on how many eggs i should let her sit on? is there an amount of eggs that will become to much for her to take care of? thanks for the help

 

[bobbi-j]

First of all, make sure she truly is broody. That means she's not going to get off that nest except briefly to eat and drink. She'll want to sleep there, she'll jump back up if you take her off. Let her be for a couple of days, and if she stays she's most likely broody. Once a hen is broody, I believe she stops laying. At least mine do. You can put other eggs under her for her to incubate. When you put the other eggs under her, take out the original one(s) so they all get started developing at the same time. Otherwise, if you have eggs due to hatch at different times, she may get off the nest after the first ones hatch, and abandon the others. Good luck!