Getting ready to set and hatch with a broody, 1st timer with questions!

[rebrascora]

I would not personally put the hatching eggs in the fridge. Is there any reason why you are wanting to keep them longer?
If there are not too many, I would be inclined to give them all to Snowball since she is obviously committed and seems to have a good natural instinct since she was so keen to get back to her old nest.
There is not a problem with the nest being a few feet up as long as they cannot fall out before the broody is ready to leave the nest with them when all viable eggs have hatched...within a day or two of the first chick hatching. Chicks that fall out whilst the broody is still trying to hatch eggs will not be able to get back on their own and the broody will stay with the majority of chicks and eggs in the nest. The broody will encourage them to jump down when she is ready to quit the nest once all the eggs that are viable have hatched and a few feet is nothing for a chick, assuming there is some bedding on the floor to cushion the landing. I have heard of them hatching in a barn loft and dropping 10+feet and just bouncing and being fine. You might want to pack around the sides of your nest box with something so that chicks cannot fall down the gap and get stuck. They sometimes climb about on the broody and can fall over the side and into a gap like that and then chill because they can't get back in. Some blocks of wood or even just pack it with cardboard to fill that area would be a good idea. Is the wire mesh small enough to prevent a chick falling through or getting stuck?

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

The wire is chicken wire. It is easy enough to pack the corners full of shavings or we may just temporarily put peices of wood in there.

So, we ended up with 10 Silkie eggs. I’m thinking that may be too much for her.

I was trying to buy myself more time to see if my broody population would go up or if I would need to break out the incubator. Prefer the broody since she regulates the temp and humidity herself!

 

[rebrascora]

Is she a bantam silkie or standard and are they bantam sized eggs? For a first time broody 8 is probably an optimum number but if she is larger and the eggs are smallish you may get away with giving her 10. My first broody made her own nest and hatched 14/14 and she was a small standard sized hen and her eggs were between bantam and standard. If she can cover all 10 eggs I would giver her them all. If the Australorp is looking like she is committing to being broody you could wait a couple of days and then give them some each, if she sticks on the nest night and day for 48 hrs with just a 20 min break here and there..... most people leave a broody for 2 to 3 days to see that she is committed before giving them eggs.

 

[WVduckchick]

Great advice given, so I won't muddy the water. But i didn't see any mention of marking the eggs (admittedly, I skimmed some of the longer posts) I mark broody eggs on the fat end with a sharpie. Date or just a good Mark that they can't rub off. Pencil will wear off.

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

These are Bantam eggs. A mix of Silkie, Frizzle and Showgirl. She’s a Bantam Silkie.

I’m gonna set up the incubator and give it a whirl today. Tomorrow afternoon, I’m going to give Snowball as many eggs as she will take and then hopefully give Jade (our Black Australorp) eggs Monday or Tuesday. She is showing commitment, but still is off every now and again, but never for long stretches. Since I moved her from her original nest, she is still trying to access the nest box row when she’s been let out of the brooder. Once or twice a day for me to clean it. Other than that, every time I go in she’s sitting and getting less curious about my activity and pacing to be let out.

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

Great advice given, so I won't muddy the water. But i didn't see any mention of marking the eggs (admittedly, I skimmed some of the longer posts) I mark broody eggs on the fat end with a sharpie. Date or just a good Mark that they can't rub off. Pencil will wear off.

We picked these eggs up yesterday and they were already date marked for us. Both girls who are going to set (1 Silkie and hopefully 1 Black Australorp) are segregated from, but still in sight of the other hens. Unless the pull a Chicken Run on me, no one else should be able to lay in their boxes.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

One nest to one nest box is the best way to go about this. Then each nest needs to be movable. This way the hen imprints on her own individual nest and returns to it each and every time that she comes off the nest to do her chicken things. Having movable individual nests makes it supper duper easy to move the old girl lock stock and barrel to her own private maturity pen or coop where she can not be bothered by strange or jealous hens. Also your hen knows her own mind better than we humans do so once she is happily sitting don't bedevil her in any way. She should come off her nest to eat, drink, and empty her bowels in her own good time. Just be sure that there is good wholesome chicken food and clean water available to her when she leaves the nest every 3 or 4 days. Sorry but your hen knows best how to do everything if we'll only let her.
Tis best to give her the new eggs in the dead of night and what ever you do be sure all of the eggs that she was already sitting on are removed and destroyed.

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

Update..

We have given one of our Silkies (Snowball) 5 of the eggs on 2/18. So far, she has been faithfully sitting on them! She is due to hatch them on this Sunday, 3/11

We gave one of our Australorps the other 5 eggs on 2/20. She too has been sitting faithfully. She is due to hatch them Tuesday, March 13th.

We are super, super, super eggcited in case you couldn't tell

The incubator is up and running, just in case. I hope to report back here in a few days with and not with ...

 

[mcclucker]

This is what I did last spring - my one broody was sitting in the regular nesting box and would not quit. That box was too high up for chicks and I was worried the other hens wouldn’t leave her alone so I built a broody pen inside the coop, blocked it off so it could be completely enclosed once the chicks hatched, and put a new nesting box and some fake eggs in it for her to sit on. She freaked out and refused until I moved the new nesting box to be facing west in roughly the orientation as her old nesting box. Don’t ask why but this worked. It was about 5 feet away, same “orientation”. She took to it and I grafted chicks to her 2.5 weeks later. If I wanted her to hatch eggs I’m sure I could have skipped them under her at night no problem.

I tried doing this again last week but I don’t think she was as committed this time. She wouldn’t accept the new nesting box at all. Of course this time I had already ordered hatching eggs and had to get an incubator when she gave up on me. Broodies! She will probably be adamant about sitting in a month when it’s too late for these chicks and I’m not getting more!

Good luck - seeing her when she first saw those babies was something I’ll never forget She was a good mama!

 

[rebrascora]

Good luck with the hatch.
Try not to be too tempted to check to see how things are going because each time you disturb them during the hatching process, they lose humidity and that could compromise the remaining hatch. If you consider that an incubator has a water reservoir to maintain humidity, but a broody hen has no means of increasing the humidity if it is lost, so try to consider these last few days as you would "lock down" in an incubator and wait until she abandons the nest with her chicks or at least a day or two after hatch day before disturbing her to check on them. The chicks will live off the absorbed egg yolk for the first day or two, so there is no need to disturb them during this period.
I look forward to reading an update early next week and perhaps some cute photos. There is nothing better that seeing little furry heads pop out from between broody's feathers or climbing on her back. Just make sure they can't fall out of the nest and not be able to get back.