Keep waiting?

[JackBess]

I put 7 eggs under a broody hen 23 days ago. The hen has seemingly been taking good care of the eggs and herself. I have not disturbed her because she is in a large dog crate to keep the snakes from eating her eggs. But, there are no chicks yet! She is still getting up every day to eat and dust bathe but quickly going back to her duty. How long should I wait before pulling her off the nest?

 

[Anon112]

KEEP WAITING!!!

My hen, Strawberry, was sitting on some eggs. (Long story, she was brooding, all her eggs were bad, another her was about a week behind her, so I gave her a few of the other hen's eggs). I got to day 26 and though, welp, these ones didn't work out either.

I went out and bought 4 chicks. Strawberry adopted them in a heartbeat, and got off the nest the next day.

I take the eggs out of the nest and then . . . . "peep"!

I wasn't sure if I'd heard it from the egg or if it was one of the chicks. Put the three eggs in an incubator and two of them hatched lovely chicks! (One sadly did not survive).

So KEEP WAITING!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum, glad you joined!

Are you counting the days correctly? It takes 24 hours of incubation for an egg to have one day's worth of development so you say "one" the day after you set the eggs. An easy way to check your counting is that the day of the week you started the eggs is the day of the week the 21 days are up. If you set them on a Friday then the 21 days are up on a Friday.

For various reasons eggs do not always hatch at 21 days whether in an incubator or under a broody hen. Eggs can successfully hatch two or even three days early or late. More than that and survival is not very likely. I'd wait a full 24 days before I did anything dramatic or drastic. Waiting another day (25 days) if you wish will not hurt anything.

Good luck and once again