egg laying

[grimreaper]

my wife has a Porcelain belgian bearded d'uccle that is being bread by a mille flora bantam. She has started to lay eggs . My question is how many eggs will she lay before she starts brooding. We do want her to rasie 1 set of chicks

 

[gritsar]

Because she is a bantam the chance of her going broody might be a little higher but there's nothing that says she will definitely go broody. I raised a supposedly broody breed for three years without a single broody. Got a second flock of "sometimes broody" breeds and rarely have a time that I don't have a broody hen.

I wouldn't leave the eggs in the nest just on the chance that the pile will get big enough and trigger your hen to go broody. A better option IMHO is to remove the eggs daily and replace them with golfballs or artificial eggs. The hen can't tell the difference and you won't have to worry about broken eggs leading to a mess and egg eating.

 

[grimreaper]

Thanks for the responce. maybe it may be better to make a home made incubator to hatch the eggs

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Oh broody hens do it sooo much better than us humans can, but a bator is more reliable about giving you chicks when you want them.