How long to llow a hen to be broody

[abbey2140]

I have an excellent broody Serama hen. She hatched out 6 out of 7 eggs on Monday. She still hasnt left the nest and there are no eggs in it but she seems to think so. I have another hen that could care less about hatching eggs and when she does she tends to kill them if we dont catch them.

My question here is.....is it OK to keep my broody hen laying on another set of eggs or is that being broody for to long?

 

[math ace]

Where are her chicks?

Is she sitting on one egg or no eggs?

 

[math ace]

Both of my hens seemed to lose a lot of weight while being broody.

If your moma is not eating a lot and leaving the nest, I wouldn't push her into another hatching.

Mu broody hatched only one chick - - it was her first time. She is separated with the chick and I am feeding both chick starter because I think mom needs the extra protein.

She had one dud egg that didn't hatch and she stayed on the nest and extra week because of it. I removed it and she concentrated ALL her energies on the baby chick.

A GOOD MAMA is worth her weight in Gold . . . . BE Careful not to wear her out !

 

[FarmGirl01]

I had a hen like yours. She hatched a clutch and then jumped on another set of eggs. The chicks were raised by me. I took her off the nest every day and fed her. She did just fine. She did raise the second batch herself.

 

[abbey2140]

She did have 1 dud egg that I allowed her to keep an extra week more cuz I'm afraid of tossing a baby more than anything. Her babies are all away from her and she isnt laying on any eggs right now. They're in a separate chick pen. We did this because we kept having hens either not hatching correctly or they were killing the chicks I'm not sure. So when the babies hatch we put them in the "play pen" We have never had a problem before. This little lady on the other hand is very persistent and even without any eggs she is still broody.

Seeing as she is small already I think I'll just see if I can get our good broody brahma hen to hatch them. I dont want to risk changing her because she does SOOO well! She is an excellent momma and she has an average 98% hatch rate which I dont want to risk ruining since the only thing it seems we can get to hatch in the incubator without a problem is ducks. lol.

 

[math ace]

I broke my hen pretty easily of being broody by putting her on the roost a couple of nights in a row.

She is now circulating with the others. It took her a week to two weeks to start laying again.

She still hasn't regained all her lost weight, so I would not let her go broody again if she decided to again.