Broody hens and bator too for blue eggs hatch

[bobbieschicks]

I have a RIR and a Splash Marian who went broody around the same time. I tried to break them to no avail. So I let them both sit on my flock eggs for 21 plus days without success. But I'm not surprised by that because the only rooster I have is 5 years old and has been molting and not mojoing if you know what I mean. The Splash sat on a blue EE egg that remained clear. The RIR sat on three olive eggs that looked promising but apparently didn't develop.

So now I have 12 shipped fertile EE blue eggs to try to hatch and I'm trying to decide after letting the broodies sit for over a month is it worth the risk to let them sit again to hatch a couple of eggs each? Or should I just keep trying to break them and try hatching my shipped eggs in the bator then raise any chicks in the brooder? The Splash has been known to sit for two cycles worth of time, but the RIR never had to sit that long. Both are still very healthy looking and get down from their nests to eat and drink regularly.

 

[bobbi-j]

How is it you're trying to break them? I haven't used it myself, but from what I've read here, a broody buster cage is the quickest, most effective way to break them. Something like a wire dog crate, elevated so the air gets under the broody's belly to cool her down, only food and water in the cage with her. Leave her in for a good 3 days or so, then watching to see if she returns to the nest when you let her out. (I believe it's @aart who has a good picture of their broody buster. Hopefully they'll share.) That having been said, I don't know that I'd ask a broody to sit for another cycle. They do lose a lot of condition while on the nest, plus can become more vulnerable to parasites, such as mites. If you do want them to set for another 3 weeks, I'd get a backup incubator just in case they decide to abandon their nests because they feel that "time is up".

 

[aart]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...rates-a-good-tool-for-every-chickeneer.72619/

My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop and I would feed her some crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two.

Water nipple bottle added after pic was taken.