Hen and 18 eggs?

[ijustsawachickeneatafrog]

A broody of mine is currently sitting on 18 eggs. 12 of them are small bantam eggs, the other six are very large eggs. Is this too many eggs for her? Will it affect the hatch rate? She's a fairly big australorp girl, but I'm worried she might struggle with too many. I really don't want to remove any of the eggs from her, so I would like to know if it's possible for her to keep them and hatch most, if not all, of them

This is her in her little cosy nest

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

She's gorgeous
18 seems like alot to me but I have Silkies.... So I would say, if it looks like she is covering all the eggs then she should be fine with them all, if you see some sticking out then take some out.
Good luck with the hatch!

 

[ijustsawachickeneatafrog]

She's gorgeous
18 seems like alot to me but I have Silkies.... So I would say, if it looks like she is covering all the eggs then she should be fine with them all, if you see some sticking out then take some out.
Good luck with the hatch!

Thank you! I hope she can keep them all, as they will be lovely chicks

 

[MomJones]

WHAT a pretty girl.

 

[Willow2253]

If she doesn’t seem to be struggling to cover all of them they should be fine. I would candle after a week and take out any infertile to make a little extra room, which is a good idea anyway so you don’t have any going bad.

 

[ijustsawachickeneatafrog]

If she doesn’t seem to be struggling to cover all of them they should be fine. I would candle after a week and take out any infertile to make a little extra room, which is a good idea anyway so you don’t have any going bad.

Thanks for the help!
I was planning on removing the infertile ones after a week or so to make room. They all seem to fit snugly beneath her at the moment, so I won't bother removing any just yet

 

[ijustsawachickeneatafrog]

WHAT a pretty girl.

Thank you! She's coming up five years old soon and still laying like a pullet