- Jun 16, 2013
- 8
- 0
- 7
Hi, I'm brand new to chickens - yesterday we got 6 barred rock hens, fully grown and laying. This morning I only found one egg, which I brought inside, but this after noon one hen flew over the fence and went into the woods near the house. She was making all sorts of weird noises, and finally came back. Then she got up in the nesting box and just sat there. I came back a couple hours later, and there were 2 eggs in the nest and she was laying on them. She got up briefly for food, but she's basically stayed on the eggs - she even let me pet her, which is definitely different, because none of these chickens let me get to close. lol The egg from this morning is fertile (they were with a rooster before we bought them), so I'm assuming these two also might be fertile. I'd love little chicks, but don't know the first thing about it. First off, does it sound like she's actually broody? If she turns out not to be, how long can those eggs stay out there before we can't eat them? Meaning if she's not sitting on them tomorrow throughout the day, can I pick them up in the evening? And do I have to put her in a totally separate pen? I don't have any other coop, just the one. Currently there is only 1 nest box IN the coop, but there's another one in the pen, but none of the chickens seem interested (of course, I only put it out this evening and they maybe didn't notice it?)...thank you for your help! I'm totally clueless!
She was roosting with all the other chickens and the eggs were cold. Ah well.
