how long can a broody hen be off her eggs?

[cntherron]

I had 3 out of the 5 eggs hatch... I was only kind of expecting that. They were about 2 days late. The second broody hen has now had 2 of her 7 hatch and looks like 2 more have pipped. She is about 2 days behind also. Thanks for the help.

 

[dirtbagchickens]

If she is raising the chick she will not sit on eggs, she will be up and about with the chick.

What if you separate her from the chick?
What if the clutch contains eggs laid over several days or a week? You only get the chicks that hatch together on the first day, others just get abandoned?
My broody has been on the clutch for maybe week. I wanted trade some eggs under her.

 

[TenHensandaRoo]

On Friday night, I was frantically searching the internet for answers to the questions; "how long can a broody hen be off her eggs and still have the chicks survive?" And will chicks still survive/hatch if the eggs are left by the mother hen and go cold to the touch? This has been a nerve wracking few weeks. We hand raised 12 chickens and this is our first time letting one of our hens set on eggs. "Noni" is a 15 month old New Jersey Giant and was determined to brood. There were 12 eggs at the start of this project. At day 10-, she accidentally got on the wrong nest and I didn't discover it until 8 that night and her eggs were cold to the touch. I immediately placed her back on the correct nest but have been fearful ever since. It was fairly warm that day but the eggs were definitely cold. Then at day 14, one of our Brahmas was on the nest "babysitting" while Noni was out stretching her eggs and cracked one of the fertile eggs:0( The chickens are free range and my husband built a beautiful self contained coop with an automatic door. He left a covered run area underneath the raised coop for the hens to hang out if they needed shelter from the rain. We decided to move Noni and her eggs on Thursday into the area below as we didn't want the chicks to fall out from the upper coop. We covered the area with fresh pine shavings, separate food and water and a nesting box.. all wired off from but visible to the other chickens. Well, we went out to dinner on Friday and much to our horror when we got home at 11 p.m., Noni had jumped over the fencing and was found back up in the coop in one of the nesting boxes.. Her eggs below in her pen

were ice cold as it was 44 degrees outside. I was heartbroken and thought the hatching project was over. Well,I am happy to report that today, Memorial Day,(day 21 of our hatch), we have had two baby chicks hatch so far. I went to check on Noni and get her out for her twice daily stretch, food, poop, dust bath and she didn't want to move. I heard peeping.. and voila! a little while later we have two healthy chicks so far. I just wanted to put that our there to folks who may fear the worst when they find cold eggs that have not been set on for SEVERAL hours. Please don't lose hope, miracles do happen!

 

[TenHensandaRoo]

We have another new chick today! One pale yellow, one gold and one Ameraucauna! I had slipped three Ameraucauna eggs under Noni in the hopes of getting at least one to hatch and we have one.. So cute..Looks like a little Cleopatra with dark outlined eyes.

 

[Selsley]

had a hen go broody last weekend didnt spot it straight off untill the second day we took the eggs out and she started sitting on an empty nest,
only problem we have so far was after we moved the eggs to the place we set out for the goose, which is under the 3 chickens nest boxes, the goose always sleep outside.

after we put food and water close, we moved the eggs and chicken down, and she sat them for quite a while, after a run about in the garden she went back up top to the empty boxes. so we just moved her back down and all was good.
the next day she went out and one of our blue layers who always lays in the goose nest moved in so the broody ended up back up top. didnt spot the extra egg when i moved her down again.

so i built a small fence which i now leave in place until after the blue layer has laid, then remove it should the broody wish to go roll in the dirt and run about, then replace it in the evening,
today we did find a blue egg up top so hopefully we can solve the problem of where both hens should be,
its not ideal but it works for now, im just hoping that when the broody goes back in today she goes in the bottom,
in time we will build a nursery if this doesnt work out;

 

[Selsley]

We have another new chick today! One pale yellow, one gold and one Ameraucauna! I had slipped three Ameraucauna eggs under Noni in the hopes of getting at least one to hatch and we have one.. So cute..Looks like a little Cleopatra with dark outlined eyes.

we did the same with our broody but not with ameraucanas, but after she left the nest and returning to an empty one on day 3 and all 5 eggs going stone cold and another blue being laid in her clutch i wasnt holding much hope of a viable hatch, on many occasions id see her in the garden and check to find really cool eggs, then last week really hot eggs..

then yesterday, this happened



theyre supposed to be araucana, except the yellow one, which is our very own EE

the 3 at the back and black one are from the same parents. the mother is black and theres no hint of green in her eggs. theyre all blue.
the one with markings at the front. its mother i suspect, is a crossed araucana she is brownish, clean faced with a much longer comb her eggs have a slight green tint
both hens and cock are rumpless.

the yellow chick has the same dad but its mother is a standard light red chicken with white tail, just hope dad carries the blue gene and passed it on.
on initial inspection by rubbing my thumb across its bottom and over its spine i would say this too could be rumpless, but i know nothing, i got no idea when a tail starts to grow.

all in all back on topic it seems to me an egg can get really cold in the early days and still hatch, some home incubators have switch off timers of an hour, to mimic a feeding mother, then i felt eggs that seemed overly hot, when i saw her in the garden and thought the eggs felt a bit cool and i knew shed been out for at least an hour i just herded her in, and if she gave me the runaround id get out the pool net, that worked well when she was being difficult, the previous owners of the araucanas used a net to catch their chickens, so from being calm watching me chase after the broody to down right vocal, running about and agitated when they saw the net, im assuming they told her what would happen and she ran straight into the coop.
as you can tell, eggs are pretty hardy to the point of idiot proof.

i think i will be much more relaxed for the next hatch after all the worry of my 1st, nature has has 1000s of years doing this without me flaffing about

 

[tillylilly]

I'm very knew at this what makes a leghorn sit on eggs forever when I have no rooster ... ???

 

[Selsley]

desire to be a mother/instinct

your options
put her in a cage off the ground to allow air under her to cool her off, search "how to break a broody" on forum
or see if you can get some eggs close to hatch from a hatchery or local farm and slip them under when she isnt looking

 

[dannyelle123]

I'm glad I found this thread... My EE went broody about two weeks ago and yesterday I placed 7 fertile eggs under her, planning to let her hatch them in the coop with the flock. Well today I went to check on her and she was sitting in the wrong nest on top of a decoy egg after one of my other hens evidently kicked her off her nest and laid an egg with the fertile clutch. They were cool, but not cold and it's only day 2 so I'm hoping my chances are still good. I put her back in the correct nest and she went back to sitting on them. I corned off the boxes and basically divided the coop in half and she has food and water available, but if I don't mess with her she only gets up to stretch and eat about once in the morning for maybe 20 minutes. My flock contains 7 hens, 3 older and 3 younger than my broody. The 3 older think they are in charge and are pretty mad about not being able to get to the boxes, but I placed a covered cat box on the other side of the coop for when they need to lay...My question is, is this even necessary or should I just remove the barrier and let them do their thing, remove eggs more frequently and hope for the best?

 

[rebrascora]

Yes I would say it is necessary as you have already discovered. If this has happened on day 2 it can just as easily happen on day 3 or 4 or 10 or worse still 19 or 20 and you risk the whole clutch getting cold and dying. The higher ranking hens are obviously muscling in to her nest to lay and pushing her out. If your hen had her own separate nest away from the communal nest boxes it would be another matter but since she is in a favourite nest box, you are nest playing safe and sectioning it off for her use only.... ideally with chicken wire so that they can all still see each other. That said you need to make sure she has access to a regular dust bath as well as food and water, because broody hens provide a 24/7 banquet for mites, so it important to keep the nest dusted for them as well as the broody.

I fasten my broody hens into the nest box with a semi solid door and let them out once a day with the flock to eat drink and poop and dust bath. I do chores during the 15-20 mins she is off the nest and then fasten her back in again once she returns and I can spend the rest of the day in the knowledge that she is safely back on her eggs. The benefit of the door being solid is that it is dark which broody hens like and when I open it to let her out, the light disturbs her trace like state and triggers her to get off the nest and take a break. I drill a few holes in the door so that it is not totally dark. She still eats and interacts with the flock once a day, so that there are no reintegration issues and when the chicks are hatching there are no worries that they will fall out of the nest because of the door. That said, if you have a hot climate, this system might be too stuffy, so you need to take into account your own conditions and circumstances.

Good luck with your hatch. Broody hens are amazing.

Best wishes

Barbara