I want baby chicks! HELP!

[jesssaye]

I get about 4-5 eggs a day. I want my hen to lay on them. She lays on them all night & then in the mornings she's always up there. I go to work I come home, she's out with the other chickens. How long does she have to lay on them for a day? Like does she have to lay on them all day except when to get food? Her laying on the eggs enough time & heat for the day for the eggs to actually hatch in 21 days? Help. In March I'll have my chickens for a year now.

 

[gimmie birdies]

they say test with fake eggs till you know she is really sitting. I let the hen sit where she wants, mark the eggs I let her keep those and remove the other eggs. It may be cute to see her sit on forty eggs, but it is not cute when they don't all hatch. I would only let a broody breed with a track record set, like a bantam.

 

[gimmie birdies]

This is Daphne she goes broody in a second. she was laying an egg today, and sitting on someone elses. when I took the eggs away she looked at the eggs in my hands, like "hey I was using those!" I would let her sit, but it is 20 degrees here.