hen keeps loosing her eggs!!!!

[Jos282]

Ive put 3 hens to sit on 8 eggs each on Wednesday, and so far its not going well!! one sat for the night then in the morning flew away and left her eggs so i replaced her with another broody hen i had and she seems to be ok, another flew off and wouldnt go back she left her eggs for about a hour or so before i got her back on will this affect them? the third was ok but this afternoon i found that shed managed to kick all but two of her eggs outside of the house and they were on the floor and a bit cold ive put them back under her and shes put them back in the nest and seems happy again had this ruined the chance of them hatching or will they be ok as shes only just started sitting properly in the last 24hrs? any advice will be gratefully recieved thanks

 

[Judy]

It's a good idea to check on a broody for at least 24 hours before giving her eggs, to make sure she stays in the nest 24/7, except for the little while she will get up every day to eat, drink and poop. I like to separate a broody while she is setting because of all the things that can go wrong if the flock has access to the broody, like moving the eggs, returning to the wrong nest, adding eggs to the clutch, eggs getting broken, etc. When the chicks hatch and start exploring, I put the hen and chicks back in with the flock.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/693407/broody-bird-what-to-do/0_20#post_9400530

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