broody leghorn?

[Jaymie]

One of my leghons is starting to act broody...outside of the coop. She'll "set" all afternoon, but in the morning she wanders around before going to set, and then returns to the coop with the rest at night. Last night it rained, and I'm sure all 14 eggs were cold enough to die...and there are still new eggs being added daily...
This is my first time at this...I've read the other posts regarding moving the nest, and I feel if she actually stayed on the nest she'd be fine.(safe)
Is she still waiting for more eggs before continuously setting?
Should I try to replace the cold eggs with fresh ones? They dont all fit under her anymore...is that normal as well? All advice would be helpful in my case! Thank-you

 

[ChicKat]

Hi Jaymie---

Interesting dilemma.... HOpe it works out for you. I can give your question a bump----

and I can say that In MAY, I had a Leghorn Hybrid that I wanted to go broody, that acted broody---that I penned up in a little dog crate---and after a week, she decided she didn't like it. Ate one egg and then deserted the rest on the nest. :O( -- so I unpenned her and she ran back to the rest of the flock.

Cooincidentally, she is flirting with broodiness now---but not as many "symptoms" as she showed in may.

One thing that may help is put a date on the eggs with a pencil and remove some --- because even if she is broody---- eggs that don't fit under her wouldn't hatch. -- It may also be helpful if you could have her in her own broody area.

 

[Jaymie]

I tried marking the eggs, and checked in each day. I saw that they were moved each day, and there were always new ones to mark. Unfortunately I had to discard them all because they were being neglected. (through thunderstorms, and every night) I think this may have been more of a case of they found a new nest! Thanks to ChicKat for the response

 

[Den in Penn]

They often will build up the numbers before committing to the nest. The eggs wait in a dormant state for her to commit. The eggs can endure a lot of suboptimal conditions while in the dormant state. Once she starts to brood the eggs come out of the dormant state and start to develop. Then is when the poor conditions really effect them. When marking Them put a date on them, when she starts to sit if she can't cover them all remove the oldest to get the numbers down.