Is she broody?

[bobbi-j]

Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinShien
So go put some under her. The worst that can happen is she'll get off the nest. If she's been there since yesterday, I'd say she's serious.

 

[lablover]

Ok, the coop is divided and she's been on the nest all day. I have 8 balls under her now, and the eggs I got today are on the kitchen counter lol. I think I'm ready. So I get the eggs from tomorrow and put them all under her tomorrow night? Or do I wait another night? Won't that be too long for today's eggs to sit out? I got 4 eggs today, so I'm hoping for at least that many tomorrow. It's a shame that she won't be hatching her own.

 

[Percheron chick]

Give her the 8 tomorrow and if she can handle 2-4 more add those Sunday. But that's enough.

 

[ShinShien]

So go put some under her. The worst that can happen is she'll get off the nest. If she's been there since yesterday, I'd say she's serious.

I took the golf balls and replaced them with 6 eggs. So far, she's still on the nest.

 

[bobbi-j]

Good! You asked if it would be too long for the eggs if you waited until tomorrow night - I have given broodies eggs that were several days old. My latest batch to hatch out (8 out of 10 eggs) sat on the counter in my husband's shop for a couple of days. The hen went broody and he decided to pop them under her. I wouldn't give her any more eggs tomorrow as that will cause her to have chicks hatching at different times. I know it's only a day, but sometimes a broody will take her babies off the nest within 24 hours.

 

[lablover]

Yeah, I'd like to put them all under her at once, for that reason. I know they can still hatch on different days though. So I can wait until Sunday to put them all under her? If so, I could have a better choice of which hen's eggs I want. That would be eggs from 3 different days.

 

[farnorth]

Yeah, I'd like to put them all under her at once, for that reason. I know they can still hatch on different days though. So I can wait until Sunday to put them all under her? If so, I could have a better choice of which hen's eggs I want. That would be eggs from 3 different days.

yes you can take up to 4 days to collect the eggs you want......well actually you can go longer but I have found that about 4 days is long enough to collect eggs for one hen....and they are more liable to hatch well the fresher they are.

I have in fact had eggs (in an incubator) where they were collected over a week...but a few of the oldest ones were the ones that didn't hatch or didn't develop.

Some people collect eggs over even longer periods and still get chicks.

 

[lablover]

Ok, here's Buffy. Thanks everyone for all of your help! Hopefully we're set to go.
I think three days is enough, since I'm not doing a lot compared to what I'm sure most people with a lot of chickens do. Again, I'm not hoping for much since this is our first time.

 

[bobbi-j]

Looks good. I don't know what you think "most people with a lot of chickens" do, and I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I think you'd be surprised at how little some experienced chicken keepers do with their birds. Let your broody do her thing, let her be while she's doing it, and she'll do just fine. First time or not, there's much to be said for instinct.

 

[lablover]

I just meant that people with a lot of birds might hatch out a lot of eggs, where as I'm doing around 10 so I would like to have as much chance of them developing and hatching as I can.