How does a chicken start her nest?

[Sinful chick]

These are pictures of broody hens sitting on clutches in the nest box in my house.
I've had 6 or 7 different hens sit here. As you can imagine, it's far from quiet given I live here as well. Sometimes I move them to a maternity unit I have just outside my front door on day 17, other times I let them hatch here and then move them so they have immediate access to the outside.
Most of the hens here will happily make nests outside, usually close to the house where the comings and goings of the other animals that live here don't seem to disturb them.
I've found it in general quite difficult to get them to sit in secluded nest boxes in their coops.
The chickens here have unlimited access to the house during daylight hours and come and go as they please.
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How awesome to live WITH your chickens! Have room for me?

 

[father0fnine]

So in summary,

There is no way to know if a hen is going to sit on an egg except to wait until she lays the whole clutch and starts sitting. In the mean time, I just have to wait until enough eggs collect that I'm worried they're going to go rotten and I get rid of them or she starts sitting. Then I can candle them after a few days.

Sound about right?

D

 

[aart]

So in summary,

There is no way to know if a hen is going to sit on an egg except to wait until she lays the whole clutch and starts sitting. In the mean time, I just have to wait until enough eggs collect that I'm worried they're going to go rotten and I get rid of them or she starts sitting. Then I can candle them after a few days.

Sound about right?

D

Yep.
Tho 'wasting' eggs waiting for one to go broody is not a great idea IMO.
You could get a pile of fake eggs as 'bait'.
Better to wait until one does go broody, and be ready to set her up in a safe place before giving fresh fertile eggs to hatch out.

 

[father0fnine]

UPDATE:

14 eggs down and no sign of the hen getting broody. I guess she'll only ever give me eggs to eat, none to hatch. Still, I like me some eggs so it's not necessarily a bad thing.

D

 

[aart]

I guess she'll only ever give me eggs to eat, none to hatch.

Well..... if she's with a rooster, she'll give you hatchable eggs,
you'll just have to hatch them yourself

 

[father0fnine]

True but I'm not ready to invest in an incubator yet, and part of my goal is to see the chicks raised with very little hands on. No brooder, etc just mama-power. I have enough of that with the chicks I buy each season. Right now, I've got a half dozen or so pullets of the same breed that I'm raising originally for meat. Since the breed is supposed to be good at going broody, (orpington) I'll try again when the new girls come of age.

D