Hatching eggs under a broody hen

[mebuff daisy]

I want to hatch some eggs under my broody hen,I have 2 roosters and 20 hens but 1 of my roosters limps but still mates,Do I
need a new coop ? How do I pick out eggs? What is candling ? I am a newbie and any advice at all is welcome,Thanks

 

[Judy]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/broody-hens

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/guide-to-letting-broody-hens-hatch-and-raise-chicks

Those are a couple of the articles here. You can read about candling in the stickies in the Incubating forum, though I have never candled my broody's eggs. I like to separate the broody for the setting then let her raise the chicks in with the flock, but others do differently. Good luck!

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are several different ways you could approach this. Many people build a separate enclosure with a nest, food, water, and a little room for her to poop, and leave her locked in there the full time, either in a totally separate building or room or right in the coop. I do it the way people have been doing it for thousands of years on small farms; mark the eggs and stick them under the hen all at the same time, then check under her once a day to see if any strange eggs show up. There are other versions of these basic themes. Neither is the only right way or the wrong way as both work.

You should select the eggs you want her to hatch and start them all at the same time. That is important either way. If you have certain hens that you want to hatch their eggs, then of course you’ll select those. But in general you want an egg that is about the same size the hen normally lays. Unusually large eggs or unusually small eggs generally don’t do well in incubation. This is in comparison to what size she normally lays. Bantams and full-sized hens will naturally lay different sized eggs so you can’t just go by size if you have a mixed flock.

How many eggs is a personal choice. I like at least four because not all eggs always hatch. You want enough to have a pretty good chance to get a couple of chicks. But if you get too many the hen will have problems. That’s part of why you need to remove any unmarked eggs daily. Hens and eggs come in different sizes. Some bantams would have trouble covering more than four regular-sized eggs, but most hens can easily cover about a dozen eggs the size they normally lay. I have had hens that could cover several more than a dozen of the size they lay, but I like to set the upper limit at twelve.

You do not have to candle. It’s a lot of fun and many people do. You can follow the development of the chick in the egg by candling, but many of us never candle eggs, especially under a broody hen. To candle an egg you look inside the egg using a light in a very dark room. There are different techniques to do that. There is something in the Learning Center up at the top of this page about candling. If you have dark brown eggs or green eggs, it can be difficult to see much inside, even with a good light.

Good luck!

 

[mebuff daisy]

Thank you

 

[mebuff daisy]

By the way someone told me that you can just hatch eggs in a raised nest box, is this true ? won't the chicks fall out of other hens take the box ?

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

You can let them hatch in a raised nest box. If the chicks are with a hen, its very unlikely that she'll let the others into the box she's in at all. And yes, they will fall when the hen brings them out (or perhaps accidentally if there is no or a short lip on the box). You could move the hen and her chicks to the floor yourself when all of the eggs have hatched or you could just pad out the area under their box with some extra shavings or straw to soften their landing a bit.
I've read posts on here where hens have hatched chicks in some pretty odd places and managed to get them all out or down with no assistance and all was well. Some of my hens hatch in our raised nest boxes, which are probably only 3ft off the ground, and the chicks have been fine after falling to the straw below.

Good luck