Is my hen laying on her eggs enough? Newbie....

[Dknichelson]

How much do hens need to lay on their eggs? I have 2 hens that are laying on eggs, but they don't lay on them much throughout the day.

Also, when we got our older girl, the guy who gave her to us gave use 12 fertilized eggs for her to lay on. My girls are laying machines and keep adding to the bunch. How many is too many? The eggs were in 2 nest areas, but the older girl moved them all into her nest. Will she stop laying on them if there are too many? How do you tell the old eggs from the new?

 

[dheltzel]

If they are laying eggs, then they are not going to hatch the other ones, you might as well eat the new ones and throw the old ones away. Hens will lay for a while, then sometimes they get it in their head that it's time to hatch some chicks, so they "go broody". That means they stop laying eggs, try to sit on a nest with eggs, pull some feathers out of their breast to expose bare skin (improves heat transfer to the eggs. They also make a distinctive clucking noise and will sometimes peck at you if you disturb them.

If that doesn't describe either of your hens, just enjoy their eggs and wait for them to get broody on their own. Some breeds almost never do this, some breeds seem to spend half their life as broody hens,

For more info, seach on this site or google for "broody hen".

 

[Dknichelson]

Yea, neither girl is acting that way. At least we can enjoy some fresh eggs now! Thanks, dhetzel!

 

[dheltzel]

Glad to help. Once you experience a hen going broody, there will never again be a doubt in you mind about whether one is or not. It almost scary how different they act, but endearing once it happens. Then you will want to go get some more fertile eggs to let her become a mother. Watching a hen with chicks is very charming.

 

[Dknichelson]

Well, they've both seem to have gone broody now, but neither has any eggs to lay on...

How long will they stay like this?

 

[malan37209]

3-4 weeks or untill they have some chicks under her.
all my hens that have hatched eggs spend no more than three days, after the first chick is hatched, on the nest.
she will keep her chicks under her for that long to give enough time for all eggs to hatch, but she will eventually need to get up to feed her little ones once their yolk sacks are used up.

so you have three choices,
1 break her. put her in a cage with no bottom and hang her somewhere. can take a couple of days to break the hen

2 get her some new chicks to give to her. That new baby chirp will break them right away. (do this at night)

3 let her be, she will lose interest in the eggs at 3-4weeks.