Hens not sitting

[pagermo60]

Hi all,i'm new to this site and hope someone can help me.. I have 4 old english bathams about a year old, laying eggs fine. The problem is no one wants to sit and hatch! I have 3 nest with 5 eggs in each. They keep laying so i take out the eggs that aren't marked and leave the rest,should i leave more then 5 or take out 1 from each nest? Help!

 

[TurkeyMountainChickens]

Sounds like you're already offering the enticement. If one is going to go broody, five eggs should be plenty. But... you can lead a hen to eggs, but you can't make her sit! You may just have to wait. Or get a silkie!

 

[elmo]

I have Serama/OEGB hens, and they didn't go broody until there were 8 or 9 eggs in their clutch. If you only want to have them set 5 eggs, wait until after they've settled in to brood the larger number (if they sit all night on the nest, that's a good sign), then when the hen is off the nest for her daily eat/drink/poop, remove the extra eggs. This worked for me!

I now have three hens that hatched out a total of 14 chicks.