how long can a broody hen be off her eggs?

[alibabba]

Quote:I feel now after going through the same heat waves...don't worry about the heat too much!

Mine were in the shed coop (who knew when I bought that expensive thing I would be an oven, well will be nice in there in the winter) I have a thermometer in there so I could see some days when it was 93 outside it was 90 or 92 in the coop. No one else stays is in there, just to lay eggs.

But I was really worried about the 2 broodies. I had a box fan blowing on them to keep the air moving. They were fine then, and it kept the temp a couple degrees lower than outside. Sometimes I saw her leaving some sticking out in front, maybe she was cooling them a bit? Just observation, nothing scientific LOL.

I just read that chick body temp at hatch is like 103 degrees! And incubators are set around 100 degrees I think?

So glad you have one and a momma to raise it! It won't be lonely. As nerve wracking as this was, can't wait till next time!!!
p.s. That last egg was hatching this morning!

 

[fenwickchic]

Yay! Got pictures and figured out how to get them transferred. Loved your pics alibabba!! So very glad your last egg hatched. I guess it wasn't the heat that did mine in if they need temps in the 100's. I will never know what happened. Just thrilled to have at least one and I know that momma Goldie is happy to have it. Goldie is looking much better now.

 

[alibabba]

Yay! Got pictures and figured out how to get them transferred. Loved your pics alibabba!! So very glad your last egg hatched. I guess it wasn't the heat that did mine in if they need temps in the 100's. I will never know what happened. Just thrilled to have at least one and I know that momma Goldie is happy to have it. Goldie is looking much better now.

Oh, that baby on her back is so sweet! Good Momma!

 

[dee34491]

I have a Broody hen . It was her first time. I set her up in a cabnet coop fenced off with screen windows divided from the main flock but accessible. She sat the infertile and eggs with regular breakes in the afternoon."I bought fertile eggs for the incubator". Several times she would linger 45 to 60 minutes. So by day 14 I started to guide her back to the coop shortly after her break daily.! Day 18 I gave her the 8 fertile eggs from incubator. Yesterday she wss off the nest for 20 min. Hatch day is Friday.... !

 

[dee34491]

this is my coop for my Broody hen...

 

[dee34491]

2chicks peek out to great the world on July 4 th.

 

[dee34491]

7 out of 8 Hstched

 

[chickenmimi]

DON'T GIVE UP ON A COLD EGG!

I know that this thread is really old but I thought I would post for anyone reading now (as I recently did). I read this post last month after realising my broody bantam had accidentally been sitting in the wrong nest box for a day and a half/ two days! When I found the egg it was completely cold!

We had moved her and the egg to a separate area from the main flock two days prior. The separate area had two nesting boxes and although I'd checked her regularly since we moved her it wasn't until my partner said 'didn't we put her into the other box?' that the cogs in my head started to move and I realised she had moved and was sat in the wrong box! How stupid I am?! But we'd moved her in the night so I didn't clearly remember which box we'd put her in. I just assumed the next day when I saw her nestled all broody in the box that she was sitting on her egg. But alas, her egg had gone cold in the other box and she was sitting on absolutely nothing!

So first lesson of the day: Even though chickens are more intelligent than most people give them credit for, sometimes they can be incredibly dumb. Anyway...

So the egg was at day 13 of incubation when it had gone cold. I was absolutely devastated and obviously (for not realising she was sat in an empty box) blamed myself. My first reaction was 'It's stone cold, it must be dead. We'll have to smash the egg and "un-broody" her.' But me and my partner were both stood there feeling like we were about to commit murder so we decided to just put the egg back under her (and blocked up the empty box so she couldn't abandon it again!), in desperate hope that a miracle would occur and it would hatch.

That's when I went back inside and started reading this thread. In which all but a couple of posts say an egg can go cold for 1-4 hours but no more. So we waited and waited and (with not much hope at all I must admit) waited some more. It got to incubation day 21 and still nothing. All I'd noticed is that my normally very friendly hen had become much more aggressive in the last day or so. Squawking as soon as I even looked at her. Which made me wonder if something was happening. That, and the only other thing that stopped me giving up and taking her off the egg, was that I'd read one post on here or somewhere else saying that if an egg has gone cold (before incubation day 14) it will not die but simply delay hatching by the same amount of time it has gone cold for. Apparently this can work for an egg that's been cold for up to ten days! So I clung to this one bit of information and decided to give the egg a couple of extra days.

Lo and behold on day 23 I walk into the coop and I hear 'peep! peep! peep!'. The egg had hatched! Two days late but it hatched! Happy and healthy! The hatch was delayed by almost the exact time it went cold for. But that was all, just a delay. The chick is about 3 weeks old now and completely healthy!

So the moral of the story... Please, please don't assume that if an egg is cold it is dead! They are much hardier than we think! And incubation CAN be delayed! My chick is living proof!

 

[Chickie McFuzz]

I have a broody that has been broody for about 6-8 weeks, and tried everything to break her, nothing worked so i decided to try hatching with her. We just got started, but now i'm worried she's going un broody. She will still sit on the eggs, but goes off for hours more than once a day. Is this too much since it is so often? Should i incubate them the rest of the way myself? Or just see how it goes?

 

[Brissychick]

Chickenmimi thank you for writing about your experience. It's given me hope. My broody being a immature mum is reckless to say the least. She goes off to the dirt spar every day and has a grand time forgetting she has responsibilities. After an hour or 2 or more she comes back.

Chicky McFuzz what happen? Did you persist or incubate?

I am not even a week in and it's my first broody hen. I been a long week.

Another chicken just got on the nest and broke one of the eggs. There is gunk everywhere. Should I do anything?