chickens laying eggs to hatch

[ba41842]

my chicken has laid 12 eggs in one nest. a rooster is in the pen with her. how long do I wait to see if shes going to hatch them?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Is she sitting on the nest? Or does she lay the egg, then is off to forage for the rest of the day. If so, she is not brooding but merely using a favorite nest to lay. A habit most hens develop.

If she is pre-brooding, then she will fuss about the nest. Be off and on the nest, but extend her sitting time longer and longer. She will puff and cluck at anyone or anything that comes close to that nest.

When she sets into a good brood, she will not leave the nest but begin to sit 24x7 getting up to only relieve herself for a few minutes each day.

It usually is best to set all eggs fresh at the same time with no egg being over 7 days of age. The older they get, generally the less fertile they are. (Although I had one hen sneakily hatch a "placemarker" egg even though it must have been 14 days old, so it can still hatch.

I would use that clutch to see if it will entice her to brood, but there is no guarantee she will go broody. Laying and brooding are completely two different things and require her hormones to genetically exist (brooding is bred out of them as it is counterproductive to good egg production). If she is genetically prone to brooding, having a good clutch size can help to trigger her brooding hormones as the eggs begin to press against her breastbone. But it may not.

Chicken behavior around the nest, hoarding and staying in the nest puffing and hissing, is a better indication of broodiness.

 

[aart]

Chicken behavior around the nest, hoarding and staying in the nest puffing and hissing, is a better indication of broodiness.

Yup! These are my go-to signs that a bird is broody:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.

my chicken has laid 12 eggs in one nest. a rooster is in the pen with her. how long do I wait to see if shes going to hatch them?

Don't wait. Gather eggs daily.
Better to use fake eggs for 'enticement', tho that may be futile.

Oh, and....Welcome to BYC! @ba41842
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