How long should I wait to put eggs under a hen?

[stone_family3]

My Dutch Bantam has been sitting all day in a nesting box, she puffs up and gets evil when I get close to her. Thankfully she does not get that way with my daughter who usually collects the eggs. This is not her usual behavior, which is why I think she might have went broody

I have five of her eggs I was going to put in the incubator, but am thinking I should put them under her now.

How long should I wait? Also should I wear any protection when I slip them under her at night? Do I just pick up her butt and place them under her?

 

[nivtup]

I would give her a day or two to make sure she is serious.

I would think you can just lay the eggs in the nest box next to her and she will grab them all up and perform her magic.



Good luck!!

 

[sourland]

I generally figure one full night plus the following day in the nest determines that she is truly broody. Simply slide the eggs beneath her on evening 2.

 

[stone_family3]

Sweet! I'm so excited. I hope she is truly broody. I can't manage to hatch bantam eggs to save my freaking life LOL. It'll be much better if she does the work for me, besides my incubator is already super full with eggs for the Easter hatch.

 

[stone_family3]

Would six bantie eggs be too much for her? I pulled 3 large sized eggs, bantie egg and two small/standard sized wooden eggs out from under her.

 

[sourland]

The rule of thumb is "as many as she can cover". She could probably cover up to 10 bantam eggs; so, 6 will not be too many. Good luck. Try to set things up so that the other hens do not have access to her nest. Hens ighting over the nest site reults in broken eggs.

 

[stone_family3]

Hmmm, will it break her broody if I move her? I have a rabbit cage I can put her in with her own water and food. The rabbit cage looks like this.

She picked the open top nesting box, the highest off the ground.


18"L x 30"W x 16"H

 

[stone_family3]

Well I put eggs in the cage, food and water in the cage , blocked it off to make it way more private. Early this morning I snuck out to put her in the cage, she was up and horribly ticked at me I used a towel and put her in the cage on the eggs. Went back out an hour later and she was pacing around in the cage.

I don't think she's really broody or I accidentally broke it.

 

[FireTigeris]

Oh, so sorry maybe she wasn't ready yet-

Why did you use a towel?

It should not scare you to handle even the meanest broody the pecks are not bad and even if they grab and twist it will only bruise- I pick them up in such a way to not get kicked, those are sharp.

Better luck next time.

 

[stone_family3]

This bantie is super mean and has drawn blood before (not when broody) I let her out of the cage about 20 minutes ago and she ran outside. I moved the eggs back to her old box and she jumped back in, puffed up and squawked meanly at me before tucking all the eggs back under her. Guess she is still broody just didn't like the cage. I'm just going to leave her alone, she's the alpha hen so I'm sure she can hold her own in the box of her choosing.