Broody with egg confusion.. What to do?

[ChicksR4Me]

I have a RIR that's been sitting on 8 eggs and they are due to hatch July 1st. Over the weekend we went to the lake and didn't come home till the next afternoon. When we got home about 3pm I went to collect eggs and my hen was laying in the wrong nest on the eggs that had just been laid that day. I'm wondering why she is getting confused as to what eggs she's been laying on for the last two weeks? It's not always possible for me to collect eggs early because I'm off to work before all the girls have laid their eggs.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

That's a big reason why folks partition off their broodys' nest boxes, or move them to an enclosed area. Otherwise other hens will climb in the nest & add eggs to the clutch, or the broody will get confused on her way back from her coffee break & settle on another nest.

Those eggs might still continue to develop, put the RIR back on them and either make a partition around the nest box or move her. It's best to do any work with or around a broody after dark. She'll need a small area but with enough room to get up & poop, with her own food & water dishes.

I wish her success, let us know what happens on July 1st!

 

[ChicksR4Me]

Thank you for your help! I will see what I can do about seperating them. I haven't had any birds put more eggs in her nest.. Thank God!! This is my first time with a broody and I didn't know how to break her of it so I figured if I let her have some eggs to hatch.. that might do the trick and she would start laying again. I sure hope so.

 

[msgenie516]

Quote:
That's exactly what I did with one of my broodies and it worked perfectly! She hatched two adorable chicks, came out of her broodiness, and is back to laying. Good luck!

 

[Judy]

If you need to break a broody, try putting her in a cage with no nesting materials and a wire bottom, with food and water of course, and elevate the cage so there is air flow underneath her, for about 3 days. It is supposed to work.

For my broody, only hatching eggs or giving her some feed store chicks worked.