Chicken hatching eggs outside of the coop

[Deep Roots Family Farm]

Hi there!

I was wondering if anybody has some advice for me, as this is the first time I have had a chicken try to hatch her own eggs.
I found a nest full of about 22 eggs in our barn, which doesn't have any other livestock in it, only mice, rats and who knows what else! The eggs are growing as I candled them, but I am not sure what to do - do I just leave her alone and hope that nothing steals her eggs or bothers her? She doesn't have any other company as the rest of the chickens are safely in the coop and she's just a young chicken, only about 6-7 months old. Can I safely move her to the coop with the eggs and have her sit on them still or will she abandon them? I would love to have her hatch them, but maybe just using the incubator would be the safest? What should I do?

 

[andreanar]

That's a crap ton of eggs! Is the broody huge?

 

[Poultrybreeder]

You could move her, but there's a 50 50 chance she'll leave the nest

 

[Fred10]

I would leave her half of them right there and then take half of those and throw them in an incubator if you have one. Or eat half. That's a lot of eggs for just one hen to sit on!

 

[Miss717]

Do you know for sure if she is setting on them?

 

[Deep Roots Family Farm]

No, the broody is not huge, just a regular sized gal. She is sitting on them for sure though, I actually put something down right beside her and scared her off of them otherwise I wouldn't know that they were there! I checked back later and she was cuddled in - she made the nest so deep that her back is under the level of the rest of the straw . We had just found a rat in one of our traps the same day, so I am a little concerned with her being all alone and the eggs disappearing when she leaves the nest. Maybe I will try to build her a private nest in the coop, transfer her there and keep a close eye to make sure she still takes them?

 

[Deep Roots Family Farm]

UPDATE - so my gal left the nest and had no interest in returning. I think she got bored and didn't want to miss life on the outside We gathered the eggs which were cold and put them in the incubator. Tonight I saw movement in a few of them so we might end up with chicks after all!

 

[hlhutchinson]

Good luck