how long can a broody hen be off her eggs?

[holyhart]

Wow, heartbreaking!!! I'm speaking without experience here, but 12 hours sounds like a long time to go without a hen on the eggs... especially if it was overnight or inside an air-conditioned house?

I actually came to add my woes to the long list, we have a broody hen on day 11 or 12, and she is in a chain-link kennel to keep the others from bothering her, and inside that is a smaller wire kennel that we lock up at night so nothing can get her, as the chain-link kennel does not have a predator-proof top to it. Anyhow, I'm out of town and hubbie is taking care of things at the farm for the week- he opened her up this morning and all was well. Went to close her up tonight and she had knocked down one of the sides of the nesting box (hard to describe the setup), and was sitting on top of it, on top of the eggs. Nothing had broken, but the eggs were cold to the touch he said. No clue how long she was technically off of them... so sad and frustrating... It's luckily warm weather at home, but if she was off the nest to eat/drink/poo this morning or afternoon, then it could have been nearly all day that she was sitting on the board over her eggs... ugh. I just want to cry! Can't do anything about it now except keep my fingers crossed and re-rig the nesting box so it can't happen again, but I will be so devastated if they don't hatch. Out of 12 dorking eggs I had under her, I had just candled 2 nights ago and had 9 definite viable eggs and 1 that was possibly viable! It's always the longest 3 weeks of my life, and now, since this happened, and because I'm out of town, it will be excruciating to wait and see!!!!

Did you have any chicks that hatched?

 

[Buffmama]

My B.O. acts like she is broody. She has 7 eggs under her, but she gets up and wants to go out. Right now we have her in the back room away from the bothersome boys. She got gashed pretty bad last week so we brought her in to heal. Well, I'm not sure what is going on in her head, but she laid another egg. She has been away from the boys for about 5 days I think. So I'm not sure if the new egg is fertile or which one it is. 4 are marked and 3 are not. She leaves them til they are cool to the touch. Is there any hope for these eggs?

 

[RoosterThigh]

I have a Australorp that went broody, this is my first broody hen. Anyway we took the advice (from a different site) to move her so we did it at night and put her in a kennel that has a fence that is almost 6 feet with two strands of barb wire on top of that. We have a doghouse in there and made a nest in the straw and placed the eggs then put her in the doghouse. She certainly wasn't in any kind of trance after the move as the person said she would be. She ran right out of there and flew on top of the fence in the dark. We then put her back and placed cardboard over the opening. In the morning she was out and had flown over the fence and waited for the auto door to the coop to open and went back inside the coop. Needless to say we lost all 9 eggs. She is still broody and we are letting her stay in the coop this time. My chickens are all free range, so I'm hoping they will all get along. Either way, it will be less stressful on the hen, so whatever happens, happens.

 

[marycontrary14]

I have a Australorp that went broody, this is my first broody hen. Anyway we took the advice (from a different site) to move her so we did it at night and put her in a kennel that has a fence that is almost 6 feet with two strands of barb wire on top of that. We have a doghouse in there and made a nest in the straw and placed the eggs then put her in the doghouse. She certainly wasn't in any kind of trance after the move as the person said she would be. She ran right out of there and flew on top of the fence in the dark. We then put her back and placed cardboard over the opening. In the morning she was out and had flown over the fence and waited for the auto door to the coop to open and went back inside the coop. Needless to say we lost all 9 eggs. She is still broody and we are letting her stay in the coop this time. My chickens are all free range, so I'm hoping they will all get along. Either way, it will be less stressful on the hen, so whatever happens, happens.

I have a Bantam Cochin sitting on some expensive eggs bought just for her. She is on day 8 in the coop with the flock, and so far, so good! (We DO have her vision to the outside world blocked pretty well, but she has access to the grounds if she wants.) One of my Maran hens kicks her off the nest so she can lay her egg, but the hen babysits very well! She tucks all the eggs under her to keep them warm, and seems to be very careful when moving about. While the eggs are with the babysitter, my BC free ranges with the rest of the flock, but once she sees the Maran come out of the coop, she hikes up her pant legs, and darts for the nest! LoL It's so cute! This is her (and my) first time going broody, but she seems to know exactly what to do! I'm amazed! So, I guess my point is, we are letting nature take it's course. If something should happen to prevent the eggs from hatching, then it wasn't meant to be. If they hatch, then that is a HUGE blessing and learning experience for our homeschooled kiddos.

Good luck!

 

[Cateydid]

So I was reading this thread early this morning with a heavy heart in an attempt to find some hope.
On Monday the kids and I excitedly candled our adopted eggs. They are Chantecler that a generous farmer gave me for my buff Chantecler who went broody. It was day 6 and things were looking great! We worked all day making her a cozy nursery because my rir was harassing her in the nesting box she had chosen to go broody in. I waited until dark to move her and the eggs so as not to stress her too much.
It was a busy school morning on Tuesday and I didn't get out to the coop until 8! I found my broody back in the nesting box- the nursery abandoned and the eggs cold. Being a rookie, I never thought to "lock" her up. I figured that after a week she would have a stronger instinct to stay with the eggs. I was wrong.
I put the cold eggs back under her and figured I would remove the festering lot in a couple of days. Not being the most patient person, I decided to check for bad eggs and candle one egg this morning. After blinking repeatedly, I am delighted to report that there was a frolicking little chick in there! Nature is astounding and resilient by times. They may have been left for up to 10 hours and it was 5C overnight.

 

[Gingersnap722]

I just started reading this thread and I'm hoping there's a chance for my eggs. We have our first broody hen and we bought some fertilized eggs and put them under her. We didn't move her, but left her in the coop with the other girls. There are six nesting boxes in there. I've noticed that sometimes when she gets out of the nest, one of the other hens will hop in to lay an egg. Then my broody mommy will get in a different nest that has unfertilized eggs in it and sit on them. Today I made her get out of the wrong nest and luckily she hopped back into the correct nest. Now I'm going to be sure I go out there constantly to gather the eggs that my other girls lay so she will start hopping back into the correct nest. I guess I'll let nature take it's course and see what happens. It's only been four days since we got the eggs so I think it's too soon to candle them.

 

[Healthy hen]

I'm feeling more positive since finding this thread. I bought 9 eggs 21 days ago and my broody hen left the nest and couldn't get back on at day 10 until I opened up the pen a few hours later. the eggs were cold and I don't know how long she had been off them . Got up this morning day 21 and nothing doing but having read this thread I' ll leave them longer. Fingers crossed but thanks for making me feel that all may not be lost

 

[Healthy hen]

One dead chick with a broken leg yesterday but today at day 24 one lovely chick. Still some eggs to go so will wait a little longer. I think my hen will get up and move when she has hatched all she can

 

[Cateydid]

Yay for the one healthy chick! Hopefully tomorrow will bring more. Fingers crossed!

 

[Gingersnap722]

Awww! We just candled the ten eggs under broody mommy and saw movement in the eggs! I am so hooked now on hatching eggs. One egg is cracked a tiny bit, but it looked like there was still movement. We left it there just in case there's a chance it will make it. I am so excited!!