Hens laying on my broody........

[Remudamom]

Or really, laying in her nest when she gets up for a drink. They don't bother her, but when she gets up they lay in her nest, or they snuggle up next to her and lay one.

Is is okay to pick her up and mark the eggs I'm going to let her hatch and remove the others? At this rate she'll be trying to hatch out a dozen.

 

[skeeter9]

Yes, it's ok to mark your keepers and remove the rest. The best thing to do would be to remove your broody and her eggs to a spot where the other hens can't get to her, but I know that isn't always possible. Just make sure that the nest is such that the hatching babies can't drop or jump out onto the floor - not a good thing! LOL

When you mark your eggs, you will need to use something relatively permanent because the movement and humidity of the hen will remove anything less so. I have used permanent marker to make a complete circle around my keepers (that way I don't have to handle the eggs to figure out which to leave in the nest) and it has worked fine.

Good luck with your eggs!!!

 

[needtohatch]

For my broody I got a watermellon crate at the local grocery store and put some wire fence over the top. It has enough room for water, food and to move around a little. I also cut a flip up door in the side so when she and the chicks are ready to come out I will just tie that open and they can come and go as they please.

 

[kbmead]

Yes, it's always good to mark the good eggs, and then take out any newcomers. Once, we did not do that, and it became very difficult at hatching time, because the hatch dates were so spread out. By the time the youngest eggs hatched, the mommas were wanting to walk around with the older chicks, and one of the hens became hostile to a new chick and pecked it pretty badly. I think she thought of the new guy as an intruder, and not one of "her" babies.

Whenever we decide to let our girls hatch a batch, we save eggs up in the fridge until we have a good amount, number them with a sharpie marker, and put them all under the broody hen(s) at once. Then they all hatch at about the same time. Every day, we check for unmarked eggs that other hens have laid in the nest and remove them.