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

[FireTigeris]

well there you go, but a mean hen I would let her brood but like mean rooster wouldn't hatch her eggs- shesh- meany hen

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[stone_family3]

Yeah she's super nice with the chicks we have now, doesn't mess with them defends them against the other girls. So I think she'll be a good mommy, if not I'll just have to take them and put them in the brooder.

 

[stone_family3]

Well I rigged something up for her, because when I went out there Sunshine (NH) was sitting on her and had stolen some of her eggs. I just hope that if another goes broody she picks a different spot. I only have 2 boxes for six hens

 

[FireTigeris]

you need to mark those eggs, the other hens might sneak new ones into the nest when she gets off to poo-

 

[stone_family3]

She's the only bantie and the only white egg layer. I'd definitely notice a big brown or green egg in there.

you need to mark those eggs, the other hens might sneak new ones into the nest when she gets off to poo-

 

[FireTigeris]

well that makes it easy- have a great hatch.

 

[stone_family3]

Okay so this morning she was in a different nesting box with the same prissy attitude, so I grabbed her eggs which were still warm and put them in the new nesting box. She was there all day, but the other girls were picking at her. So I moved her to the cage again, she did great for about 30 minutes before she started to go stir crazy. So I moved her back to the original nesting box and gave her back the original eggs.

So how long can she be off the nest before the eggs are lost? Also should I try moving her back to the cage again tonight? I could possibly give her a bit of a bigger cage if that might help, she's a small bantie and has plenty of room in the current cage (18"L x 30"W x 16"H) but I could always move her to the other cage I use to brood chicks inside (47"L x 24"W x 24"H).

Also should I cover the cage or isolate it even more from the other guys?

 

[FireTigeris]

They can and will get up- they will need or want to poo- and eat and drink- the eggs can lose heat ok.

She needs to be on the eggs so they stay at or around 90-102*F if it's warm out she might be able to get up for awhile!

 

[stone_family3]

Well eggs are ice cold, i will leave them till later to see if she goes back.

 

[FireTigeris]

She's refrigerating them? I would hope they would be ambient temp.

What are the temps where you are?

Also she may have decided those won't hatch or that she just doesn't have enough broody hormone to stay broody.

Mine will quit half way through if the weather suddenly changes.