Hi I have a hen who recently started laying eggs. We also have a cockerel and I know the eggs are fertilised. We were hoping to hatch the eggs and the hen has so far laid eleven eggs. Yesterday and the day before she sat on them for a few hours and when I came near her she growled at me and ruffled up her feathers whilst sitting on them, but then late afternoon she got off and wandered out of the coop. She didn't return to the eggs until this morning. She is now sitting again doing the protective thing but I'm worried she will leave the nest again later. What's going on? Is it possible for a hen to become half broody? Is she just practising or still getting there? When she started laying the eggs she would sit there for like an hour while laying then leave. Increasingly she is sitting longer and longer until the growling started two days ago. I really thought that was it yesterday! She sat seven hours before abandoning the nest.
What breed is she? Some breeds really tend to go broody, others not so much.
If you're wanting her to go broody, here's what I would do. I'd mark the 11 eggs that are there--it sounds like you've left them all in the nest, correct? If so, mark those with a sharpie so you'll know which they are. Then you leave them there as bait, and collect each fresh egg she lays. That way there is bait in the nest, and you can have some eggs for eating while you're waiting for her to go broody. Depending on your weather you can leave bait eggs in the nest a few weeks. Of course if they start getting stinky or nasty, toss them
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A lot of hens, especially first timers, practice being broody before they actually commit. I think they just like to drive us insane
. Growling and flattening out like a chicken pancake are good signs of being a broody. Tucking eggs underneath herself or pecking at you while on the nest aren't especially broody signs, most all hens will do that while laying.
My criteria for declaring a hen broody is sleeping on the nest. If a hen spends two nights in a row on the nest, I then remove the bait eggs and give her the eggs I want her to hatch. If the bait eggs have not been there very long, I may go ahead and use those, but they'd need to be less than a week old. Otherwise, I'd toss them and mark fresh eggs and give those to her. Mark the calendar for 21 days and keep an eye on her. She'll get off once a day or so to take care of business, otherwise she'll spend all day and night on the nest.
Good luck!