madlaina
Chirping
We have another broody hen and this time decided to source some fertile eggs to put under her and see what happens.
She has been sitting on some unfertilised eggs for a few days and we got a dozen fertile eggs yesterday. We tried to move the hen into a separate pen, as she was sitting in one of only two nesting boxes, and give her the new eggs to sit on - that ended in disaster: Two broken eggs and one very unhappy hen who absolutely refused to sit on the eggs. So after a few hours of waiting I moved the remaining eggs and the hen back into the nesting box - she promptly got up and stalked away from the nest protesting. I decided to leave her for the night and check on her in the morning.
This morning she was back on the nest. She had chucked 6 of the 10 eggs out, which resulted in two more broken ones, but was sitting on four eggs. I discarded the broken ones and placed the other four back in the nest near her. When I just checked on her just now, 4 hours later, I couldn’t see any eggs either next to her in the nest or outside the nest. I hope that means she has now taken all 8 remaining eggs. So now we wait.
I am also hoping the 4 eggs that spent the night outside the nest will be ok, as she never sat on them in the first place and it wasn’t cold overnight.
I intend to leave the hen where she is, as she clearly does not agree to being moved, and have set up our second small pen for additional egg laying space for the other chickens.
To make sure we disturb her as little as possible the kids are now on a strict egg collection roster.
She has been sitting on some unfertilised eggs for a few days and we got a dozen fertile eggs yesterday. We tried to move the hen into a separate pen, as she was sitting in one of only two nesting boxes, and give her the new eggs to sit on - that ended in disaster: Two broken eggs and one very unhappy hen who absolutely refused to sit on the eggs. So after a few hours of waiting I moved the remaining eggs and the hen back into the nesting box - she promptly got up and stalked away from the nest protesting. I decided to leave her for the night and check on her in the morning.
This morning she was back on the nest. She had chucked 6 of the 10 eggs out, which resulted in two more broken ones, but was sitting on four eggs. I discarded the broken ones and placed the other four back in the nest near her. When I just checked on her just now, 4 hours later, I couldn’t see any eggs either next to her in the nest or outside the nest. I hope that means she has now taken all 8 remaining eggs. So now we wait.
I am also hoping the 4 eggs that spent the night outside the nest will be ok, as she never sat on them in the first place and it wasn’t cold overnight.
I intend to leave the hen where she is, as she clearly does not agree to being moved, and have set up our second small pen for additional egg laying space for the other chickens.
To make sure we disturb her as little as possible the kids are now on a strict egg collection roster.