Hen gone broody with no rooster!

[5chickenluver7]

yes this is normal. my hens go broody all the time. lock them out of the nest box's or give her some fertile eggs if you want chicks. bpth of these work well, but the hen will go broody again after she has chicks- mine did.

 

[missychicky]

Do you have to do anything specail to keep them alive? and out of curiosity, say the fertilized eggs are partailly developed- could I still keep them for after the move? and 1 last thing-how do you candle a egg without a candler?

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
If the eggs have already been under a broody or in an incubator you need to keep them there or they'll die--I have had a broody get back on the wrong nest, her eggs got cold, I put her back on and most of them still hatched, but that is a crap shoot and not ideal.

If you want to take some fresh fertilized eggs with you to put under her after you get settled in your new place that should work just fine. Keep the eggs pointy side down in a carton, avoid jolting them around, tilt them at about a 45 degree angle and change angles 2-3x a day, and keep them cool. I store my hatching eggs in the garage and put a book under one side of the egg carton then the other to "turn" them until I'm ready to put them in the bator or under a hen.

ETA: I use a small high power led flashlight to candle eggs. I bring them into the small bathroom (no windows) and it works well for all but the very darkest eggs--I can usually see a little in the dark eggs, just not much.

 

[Chick CJ]

I bought a broody hen and some fertilized eggs she was already sitting on and I moved them and it didn't stop her setting on them. I carried the eggs under my shirt and her in a dog crate. When we got to the house we put her back on top of the eggs and she never moved. I think it depends on the hen.
CJ

 

[elmo]

I use plastic lidded storage bins for nestboxes, and moved the box itself with the hens and their eggs inside all around the place on a daily basis: into the coop at night for security, out into the run in the day because the coop was too hot then. None of them budged.