I have 2 wyandotte hens a year old they been laying sporadically since i got them i think ones trykng to go broody there were 3 eggs in 3 days and she was setting on nest and kinda irate when i opened nesting box. I took her eggs i have no rooster. I have rir eggs coming thats fertile i just put fake eggs in her nest to see if she will set i covered window to laying box making it dark. I put both hens back in coop. Do i need to keep them in coop or can they run the yard today and theyll find eggs this evening when they go in to sleep im new to this using a broody hen but i do have incubator if she dont set.
Unless the Sun is shining directly on the hen, the nest, or the eggs I think that darkening the coop is overkill. Hens normally choose dimly lit areas in which to make a nest and lay anyway. Let your setting hen be herself. That is the crux of natural incubation. Can you easily pickup the entire nest, box, hen, eggs, bedding, and all then move it to a separate area where your setting hen can have more privacy? If not let her remain in the coop. When she has stayed on the nest for a minimum of 48 hours STRAIGHT you can be sure that she is committed to hatching.
Mark your RIR eggs with a #2 led pencil and after allowing the RIR eggs to sit in a cool and quite environment for 24 hours to settle down after the rigors of shipping proceed like this. In the Deep Dark Dead of Night, that means when chickens sleep and there is no light, remove all nest or dummy eggs. Carefully put your RIR hatching eggs under your setting hen. She is the one who must sit on them for 3 weeks so allow the old girl to rearrange them anyway she desires. She will most likely move or rearrange them about 20 times per day anyway. Turn around now and just walk away.
Often times setting hens will gather up her eggs and hold them under her wings. The hen does this for a reason. Don't ask me why. Don't monkey, fool, or fiddle with your setting hen unless it is an absolute necessity. If you pick her up off her nest you may be greeted by a shower of eggs falling out from under her wings. This may result in cracked eggs and addled fetuses. If it was beneficial to drop eggs to help then hatch I am sure that all the incubator manufactures would offer an egg falling option on their machines like they do for forced air or automatic turning options.
Hens are not the brightest bulb on the Christmas Tree but they all have a functioning stomach and they can tell better than you or I when it is time for them to eat and drink. One good reason for a hen to have her own little pen is so she can have her own
separate, private, and secure food and water supply close at hand when she decamps to satisfy her appetite and thrust. DO NOT SECOND GUESS a hen, she knows what she is doing, we humans can only guess. If a hen comes off her nest to eat or drink and there is no food or water, she will likely eat a few of her own eggs. Don't get mad at her, the fault is all ours.
Lastly, before you even begin to think about, considering to think about maybe allowing one of your hens to brood, sit, or hatch.....
de-worm, de-louse, and de-mite her before hand.
PS:
If your setting hen remains on her nest in the highly un-natural coop or pen setting, and she coms off her nest to eat and drank, have you considered another non-setting hen usurping the nest to make her daily egg deposit? Then if your setting hen goes to get back on her nest she is unable to recognize it because some other hen is in her nest. Your setting hen than goes back on the wrong nest and 30 minutes later the usurper hen lays and leaves her egg behind and all your developing RIR eggs die before you find the SNAFU. This is the real and main reason to provide each setting hen with her own little paddock to sit and hatch in.
