how do i KEEP her broody???

[five is my dog]

i have a hen who has been setting on different eggs for 3 day off and on. today she stayed on them for about 5 hours. but when i let the others out she ran out. i thought i might have been wrong so i cracked an eggs she had sat on for 5 hours. and there was a very small red spot where the fertilized part goes. so i know she was broody but how do i keep her that way.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

If she is running off with the other hens she isn't broody. So I'd wait until you have a broody...I don't think there is much you can do except maybe keep a lot of golf balls in a nest to encourage them.

 

[five is my dog]

i have golf balls in the nest thats what she set on. if she wasnt broody then why did the eggs form? she goes out to free range but cant get back to the eggs because the door is closed because there are babies in it.

 

[donrae]

That red spot was just a blood spot, nothing to do with a baby chick. It takes days of incubating for the chick to start to develop, not hours.

I don't decide a hen is broody until she sets on the nest two nights in a row. But the behavior you're describing doesn't sound broody to me. I'd just wait and see how things go.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/explore/embryology/
Here is a clickable link for chick development in case you are interested. I agree with donrae that the red spot would have been just a blood spot. This can occur even when there is no cock bird present...it is bleeding as the egg is formed...totally normal to happen occasionally. The grocery store eggs don't have these since they candle them and don't sell the ones with blood or meat spots from what I have read.