Help my broody hen quit setting

[kroman]

I had to move my broody hen out of the pen with the other hens because they were getting in the nest with her and adding more eggs. She started out on 17 on Tuesday the 19 but ended up with 22 on Wednesday the 20. Anyways, when I moved her, I did it at night and she was on the nest when I went to bed but she was not on it when I got up and hasn't gotten back on after a couple hours. I brought the eggs in the house but I don't have an incubator. I have been reading the homemade incubator pages but I don't have any thermometers or hygrometers. I have water,lightbulbs, heatlamps and cardboard boxes, and plastic tubs. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to save the batch and if so can I make it without thermometers and so on?

 

[FoosterRooster]

Wow, 22 seems like quite a lot for one bird.
Assuming that your eggs are fertile, do you have space inside the coop where you can put her into a private nest with her eggs and let her hatch them?
She would need food and water, and a little room to get out of the nest and do her business.
Why not just let her sit on them?
I have a broody hen right now on 12 eggs, but I built a separate brooder and put a nest box in it with her eggs.

 

[FoosterRooster]

I failed to mention in my previous post that I have been told a hen might get off of the nest for a while, and she will know how long until she needs to sit back down.
I hope it works out for you, I am going through it for the first time right now as well.
Good luck,
FoosterRooster

 

[TeamChaos]

How long do you think she was sitting on the eggs? From reading your post, I am thinking two days? I'd say candle the eggs and if you see any promising spider veins, then put her back in the coop with numbered eggs and remove the fresh eggs every day for a while. If the other hens want to chase her off the nest, try closing off the box but allowing her to stay. She'll need her own food and water and you can give her the choice to leave for a while each day.

 

[kroman]

Yes it was about 2 full days. I never thought about marking the eggs and leaving them in there. I will candle them and if there is anything I will try to put them back under her. Right now they are in a qickly made incubator. I found a meat thermometer and it is right at 100. Don't know what the humidity is but I do have a shallow dish of water in there. I live in Alaska and the eggs were already completely cold when I found them this morning. However I have been reading different threads on hatching and incubation diffuculties and I figured I will give it a try. thanks for the comments. I'll update on how things go.

 

[TeamChaos]

Yes, please do keep us updated! I'm in the process with my first broody hens and one egg I found rolled out of the nest and cold, cold, cold. I only knew it was a broody egg because it had the mark on it- so I added a "?" to the date in marker and slipped it back in. Lo and behold, three days ago I had a sassy yellow chick hiding under one of the hens and she had hatched from the blue "?" egg. I was shocked!

 

[kroman]

Just wanted to give a quick update on all those eggs. The hen never went back on a nest so I have them in the house in a makeshift incubator. I haven't been able to get to town yet for a hygrometer but I do have a themometer in there and it is staying pretty steady at 100. I am not sure if that is good temp for the entire incubation period but I figure if it doesn't go above 100.5 or below 99 it hopefully will give those little guys a fighting chance. I tried candling them last night but I don't think my light is bright enough. most of my eggs are green and brown and even though I could tell where the yolk was, I couldn't tell if there were any veins forming. I figure I will keep checking for bad odors. I have been reading alot of conversations on here and apparently you can smell if an egg is going bad. All I can do is wait and pray now.

 

[kroman]

Yea!!! I candled the eggs last night and I saw veins and eye spot in 3 of the eggs!!! Most of them I couldn't see through and I will have to get a brighter light but I am very encouraged. I don't remember the exact thread I was reading but it had pics of chick growth and so I knew what to look for. Thanks everyone for your input both for my problem and for others. It comes in very handy.

 

[kroman]

I candled my eggs again this morning and I saw actual movement in 6 eggs. I have only thrown away 2 so far that I am sure nothing was growing. I only have 2 more weeks and I am so excited to see how many are actually going to hatch.

 

[kroman]

Yeah!!! I had 2 chicks hatch yesterday and 1 more this morning. There are still 11 in the incubator. I am gonna give them a couple of more days due the fact my incubator was a plastic tub so the temp didn't stay super even. I am extremely excited that any hatched at all. God's creation is amazing!