Hens starting to brood

[magpiesing]

Since I am a new egg, I imagine this question has come up before, but here goes. Some of my hens are starting to act broody. How long can they be off the nest to eat and do their "chicken things" without harm to the eggs. I haven't let them keep the eggs because it's still getting cold here in southeast Texas (will be near freezing again tonight.) These hens successfully hatched chicks before. Thanks Magpie

 

[Ridgerunner]

A surprisingly long time. In warm weather I’ve seen a broody stay off for more than an hour at a time and do that twice a day. In colder weather fifteen minutes and once a day may be more like it. It varies by hen and by weather.

I’ve also had a broody go back to the wrong nest. I assume another hen was laying an egg in her nest so she went to another nest that had few eggs in it. By the time I checked on her the eggs were ice cold to the touch. I just put her back in them and walked away. She hatched 11 out of 11.

 

[magpiesing]

Well I guess she's not really ready to sit. She was off for most of the day yesterday. This is funny. She is a little catalana hen but she hatched eggs from our big birds and now her hatchlings are nearly twice her size but still try to get under her wings. She gets tired of them though and runs them off after a while. Anyway will wait a while yet so the chicks will have a good chance. Thanks, you're a good egg