Broody Questions

[chickeneer45]

She didnt lay on them at first its kind of a long story but on sunday a different hen had appeared to have gone broody because she sat on the eggs for a full 24 hours but all of a sudden she stopped and for about a day the eggs were left alone but then this new hen has been sitting on them for the past 48 hours

 

[Bush Chickens]

hmmmm...you'll have to candle them to know for sure if their still hatchable

 

[chickeneer45]

How do you do that?

 

[Bush Chickens]

You put a flashlight right up to it In a darkened room to look for development

 

[chickeneer45]

okay well two more questions:
first, will she attack me if I try to remove her from her nest temporarily so that i can count and candle the eggs?
second, is there any chance that she will stop being broody if I remove her for a second?
Thanks so much! Hopefully I will get a reply within an hour because I'd like to do it before it gets too dark.

 

[Bush Chickens]

Yeah,she'll peck you,but she won't go for your face or anything.there's a small chance she'll stop being broody,but when you move her,just put her in a box with some more nest box shavings and some ping pong balls,and she should be good.just whatever you do,you can't let the eggs get too cold.you can't keep them out any longer than 15 min

 

[chickeneer45]

Success!

 

[chickeneer45]

Mama Hen didn't even care she just kind of shrunk down when I moved her. I moved her onto five other eggs into the adjacent nesting box. I candled one of the eggs and I held it with the small part pointing downwards, the large part, which was at the top, was darker than the rest, and there were specks everywhere, i dont know what that means though. She was sitting on eight eggs! Another question I have is: does the embryo begin to grow once the eggs is laid or once the mama starts sitting on it? Also, if I put one more egg under her now, would that be a problem? Because I was hoping for nine eggs, because I was going to name the babies after the planets.

 

[Bush Chickens]

Specks everywhere?was that on every egg?one more egg should be fine.it begins when she starts.brooding on them

 

[chickeneer45]

i only checked one egg...