How Many Eggs/Chicks for a Broody?

[starrmar006]

I have a broody hen and I was wondering how many eggs can she have under her for most of her eggs to hatch and how many chicks can she have under her for them all to survive?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Chickens and eggs come in different sizes. Some bantams may struggle to cover 4 large eggs. Who knows how many bantam eggs a full size hen could possibly cover. Some hens lay relatively small eggs relative to their size, some lay really large eggs. There is no set answer.

A hen needs to be able to comfortably cover all her eggs. I like to leave enough room so that if a couple of extras show up they are still all covered. She also needs to be able to cover the chicks and those chicks grow pretty fast. In warm weather that is not as important as in colder weather. In summer I often see really young chicks sleeping on top of Mama or next to her instead of under her.

Now I'll throw some numbers at you. I typically give a hen about a dozen eggs of the size she normally lays. I have had hens where I was not comfortable dong that. She did not look like she could cover them that well so I only gave her ten. If the weather is going to be cold when they hatch like February or March I only give eight so she can cover the chicks longer.

On the other hand when I was a kid we had a hen hide a nest and bring 18 chicks off the nest. I never did find it so I don't know how many eggs did not hatch. Often when I put eggs under a broody I also put some eggs in my incubator so they hatch at the same time and give them all to the broody to raise. In the heat of summer I had one hen raise 15 chicks doing that, another raised 16.

Hopefully you can get something useful out of all this. Normally I'd suggest 10 to 12.

 

[HuskerHens18]

My bantams have hatched 2, 4, and 12 successfully. The 12 though was using dual broodies, they shared the same nest.