day 18 and Broody Hen keeps getting off nest!

[little white]

Broody hen keeps getting off the nest, and isn't clucking as much as she used to... When I find her in the yard, I lure her back to the nest and she settles down for only an hour or two before she's up again.
It's 85 degrees in the shade today..
How long can an egg sit alone in the nest before the unhatched chick dies? Any advice on what I can do?
It's just one lonely little fertile egg!

 

[dancingbear]

Have you candled it to see if it's still alive? It may have died, and that may be why she's leaving it. How did she come to only have one egg?

 

[gina4animals]

Need some help on a similar situation.
I have a broody hen sitting on day 23 on one lonely egg. no, havent candled it but just assumed it was fertile cause of her Roo pal. However, it could be dead so I will don some heavy gloves and attempt to snatch it away long enough to candle it. She is so protective I am almost afraid of her!
My question is how long will she keep sitting there if it is dead???
Can I put some other eggs in there now that it has been so long?
She barely gets up to eat or defecate she is so devoted!
I didnt want to add eggs before since I wanted them to have the same hatch date, but now I wish I had...
Any help from anyone on this situation is greatly appreciated.
I will report back post candling!

 

[dancingbear]

After day 25 I'd give it up and take out the egg. You may want to break her broodiness, if she doesn't give it up herself in a day or two. You can do that by placing her in a wire bottom cage with no nesting materials, just food and water. Her bottom will be too cool to hatch eggs, her body temp will drop a little, and her hormones will shift out of "brood".

Next time, you might want to save up eggs for several days, mark them, and give them to her all at once. Then she'll have a better chance of hatching something, and chicks do better if there's more than one.

I often see people post that they "let a hen have just one egg to hatch", and I have wondered why they would do that.

 

[little white]

She's only got one egg because we don't have a rooster, but when she went broody I took two eggs out from under a friend's hens who live with a roo. I put them under Lucy, candled them a week later and one was fertile. Tossed the infertile egg. Lucy's back on the nest nonstop now, so maybe it'll be okay. Tomorrow is day 19, I think. This is so exciting!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

It is exciting, and I wish you & Lucy the best of success. But it seems that broody hens have varying degrees of skills, some are fantastic setters & mamas, others are more flighty and may quit prematurely for no good reason. Let us know how Lucy does, you've got 2-3 days left to find out!

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
I see. Next time maybe you can get her a few more!

They keep for several days before they have to be incubated, so even if there's only one or two layers, you can save up eggs for a few days.

 

[little white]

Good idea. If this one doesn't hatch, I'll do the wire cage thing to try to break the broodiness. She's so thin and she's been working at this so long. And I'm tired of frying up egg yolks for her. It would be nice if she'd just go back to eating chicken feed!

 

[DANNY]

If an egg has not hatched by day 22 under a hen it is not going to hatch unless the hen left the nest for a time or something else going on. Most of the time they will be ready to leave the nest on day 21.

 

[YvonneCrzyChckn]

My silkie Reese was on day 18 of brooding when her cousin Rose brought all 13 of her chic's up to Auntie Reeses nest, next day Reese stopped brooding and Rose got herself a full time Devoted Nanny! Today is day 21 and they all 15 only sleep on the eggs at night. I still have hope, am I setting myself up for disappointment? Or will my little clutch of 5 survive? Thank you in advance for ANY advice.