Help, first ever broody hen! Need advice.

[lamberts chooks]

My buff orpington went broody 6 days ago and she doing great so far (scary, but great) I am going to wait until day 10 to do my first candling session, however, my other two girls- a dark brahma and pekin bantam, keep squishing in with her to lay their eggs! I'm so stumped on what to do, the eggs will be all different ages, some fertile, some not! And will my orpy just up and go at day 21 leaving any later eggs? Should I move her to a "maternity ward"?

 

[lamberts chooks]

My buff orpington went broody 6 days ago and she doing great so far (scary, but great) I am going to wait until day 10 to do my first candling session, however, my other two girls- a dark brahma and pekin bantam, keep squishing in with her to lay their eggs! I'm so stumped on what to do, the eggs will be all different ages, some fertile, some not! And will my orpy just up and go at day 21 leaving any later eggs? Should I move her to a "maternity ward"?

someone please please help, our brahma took over sitting on the miss matched eggs and the rest of our chickens were killed by a fox a week ago. There is no sign of any hatching and my candler died! What do I do!? We are left with our one chicken sitting on these eggs that I don't even know are viable. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bigbruce]

Hi,calm down broody's are great.She might stay until day 23 waiting for more eggs to hatch but she's going to come off to feed and water her chicks.Put pencil marks on your broody's eggs then you can check every day and pull out the others.Im not an expert but I have been raising chickens for 40+ years.Hope this helps

 

[lamberts chooks]

But she took over from the orpington who is now dead! None have hatched and I have no way of checking if there's life there. From when the orpington went broody to now has been 4weeks, surely one should've hatched by now if it was going to, even from the later collection? Also my son accidentally knocked an egg yesterday when I was trying to listen for any faint chirping and it cracked a little and there was some blood! It's all abit of a disaster!