Broody question?

[Memphisjourney2seramas]

I have a BO chicken that has been broody since last saturday. I had issues with my incubator so I took by serama eggs and put them under her and took her mix eggs and put them into the incubator. (not that I need more chicks, I Just felt guilty since they had already been baking for 5 days) Now I have a sex link hen that keeps trying to take over her nest. She practicly sits on her. I was worried in all the fighting she would break a serama egg, so I took some of the mix eggs out the incubator. My question is since they have already been baking for over a week, will there be problems since she just started sitting on them? Also...Can I keep adding fresh eggs to the mix and just take the chick when they hatch so they she will keep sitting and hatching out more since she is already ahead 8 days of baking.

 

[Memphisjourney2seramas]

any advice out there?

 

[mljohnson05]

As long as the eggs have stayed warm this whole time.....moving from the bator to a hen should not be an issue and visa versa

The trouble that I have found with adding in new eggs, is that you never know if she will just one day get bored and leave the eggs with no warmth.
And once the eggs start to hatch, sometimes the hen will no longer want to be sitting on the ones that have not.

In the long run it is up to you, but whatever you decide, make sure you keep an eye on them so that when the older eggs hatch, the younger ones don't get left in the dust.

As far as the other Hen sitting on top of the other....try giving them BOTH eggs to sit on and see what happens

 

[elevan]

Quote:
I currently have a broody that I gave a dozen eggs to. Caught another hen in the box on top of her laying an egg. She didn't stick around. But when I checked under the broody, she now has 16 eggs!!! She's been allowing the other hen to lay on her and then takes the egg

 

[Memphisjourney2seramas]

That was happening for sure. One day there were be 7 and them there would be 12. I marked but then I just moved them to the incubator and moved the seramas out under her. I gave the sex-link some egg and tonight she was still sitting on them. I have the incubator fired up and ready to go at anytime. If she gets off I wont have to worry about them getting cold because it over a 100 degrees everyday.

 

[Memphisjourney2seramas]

Theoretically...as long as I take the chicks after they hatch she should stay on the remaining eggs, right?