how freaking long will she stay broody?

[Tad]

I have a white sebright hen a red sebright roo and a red sebright hen, the white hen went broody, hatched 6 eggs, 3 weeks ago, she is still sitting on a pile of eggs and this morning 2 new fluffy butts...she still has a mountain of eggs how long will she keep this up?

 

[hikerchick]

I have a Muscovy duck that sat on her eggs for over six weeks before giving up. The ones that did try to hatch, she killed.

 

[Year of the Rooster]

She'll do it however long she wants, really. But it would be wise to break her of the broodiness. Sitting on a clutch, one after another, takes a lot of energy and she could starve herself.

By the way, there are no White and Red Sebrights. There are Silver and Golden.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Are you allowing the other hen to continue adding new eggs to the broody hen's nest?

 

[Tad]

yeah she is, the banty eggs couldnt be coming from anywhere else, should I take the other hen and throw her in with my other group? let her finish what she has here and break the cycle?

 

[EweSheep]

I had two sister Orps that would sat on the eggs for two and half months before a surprise delivery of chicks came.

They were excellent mommas!

 

[Ridgerunner]

My advice would be to definitely not allow any more eggs to be added. For the hen's health, you need to break the cycle. If I could, I'd also candle the eggs she has and get rid of any that are not developing before you have a rotten egg explode under her.

 

[Akane]

Get a good small flashlight. Candle all the eggs. Only leave the ones that are mostly filled with chick. Get rid of all the clear or nearly clear ones. Then either remove the other hen, block off the broody, or mark the eggs you left with a pencil so you can remove the new ones each day. The ones that are nearly all dark should hatch within the week and the broody will be out of eggs. Then she'll get to tending her chicks and herself which is much healthier. I just had to do that with a broody little bantam who kept coming up with new eggs no matter what I did and was somehow fluffed out over nearly 2 dozen standard eggs.

 

[Biddylover]

You got good advice here, definately check the eggs. Black beauty was sitting on 17 eggs four hatched she killed one. I decided to pull her off after three days of nothing else. We checked the remaining eggs with a flashlight and most never fertilized and four were boiled and one had a live one that died later. I agree it isn't good on her health she will not get enough nutrition constantly sitting. JMHO

 

[LynneP]

My last one

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-sick-hen

Now I have another...Oh my