Laying eggs over fall/winter?

[Nimure]

Hiya friends,

So my hen welshie just started laying. It’s currently a very solid fall here in the midwest and I’m not entirely sure what to do. These are her first eggs. I’d like her to go broody and hatch out babies, but I’m thinking this is a poor time of year for her to be doing that. If I take the eggs away now and then start leaving them in the spring will she still want to sit? Or should I give her the option now even if it doesn’t pan out?

I’ve never done this before so I could use some advice.

Edited to add:

Any idea if this egg is fertile? I see a circle but not quite the bullseye I was expecting.

 

[Isadora]

Seeing as she's young and hasn't been broody before, plus the bad time of year, I would collect all the eggs for now and wait until spring.

 

[ProudRedneck]

I'm in sort of the same boat as you but I won't get the extreme temperature shift in Florida as you will.

My Muscovy hen is currently laying her first clutch (22 eggs so far) and I am going to let her incubate her first batch. She is not comittedly sitting yet but she is definitely pre-broody (warning squeaks, tucking head, fluffing her feathers up, and spending more time on the nest at night)

It's really going to be up to you on what you want to allow. Don't worry about the possibility of next time because it's hormonal/natural for them to want to hatch their brood, so you won't break her maternal instinct permanently.

 

[Canadian Wind]

I was the silly person that went and incubated eggs in late summer. I currently have three ducklings under a month old that will need to spend the winter inside.

As Isadora said, collect the eggs for now whether fertile or not (I'm not good at telling the bullseye yet, so can't comment on yours), or be prepared to have ducklings living in the house and stinking it up!

ProudRedneck is correct, once the hormones hit she'll sit for you. Remember that not all ducks go broody though.

 

[Nimure]

Thank you all for the replies! I left the eggs in the nest box out of curiosity after my post, while awaiting replies. The hen mallard decided to go broody though. If she’s not sitting on them, one of the chickens takes over

Definitely gonna have to raise these inside if they hatch because they’re going to be so confused LOL

I usually keep the babies inside until they have their feathers anyway, even over the summer, so it won’t be a huge deal I don’t think. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep the number of eggs in the nest to a minimum, and if they manage to hatch out, I’ll get them in the brooder. If they don’t hatch, well, we had a solid practice run at least. Idk I just feel bad taking them away now with my one female being all broody and protective of them. Haha.

 

[Chicken poppy]

Thank you all for the replies! I left the eggs in the nest box out of curiosity after my post, while awaiting replies. The hen mallard decided to go broody though. If she’s not sitting on them, one of the chickens takes over

Definitely gonna have to raise these inside if they hatch because they’re going to be so confused LOL

I usually keep the babies inside until they have their feathers anyway, even over the summer, so it won’t be a huge deal I don’t think. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep the number of eggs in the nest to a minimum, and if they manage to hatch out, I’ll get them in the brooder. If they don’t hatch, well, we had a solid practice run at least. Idk I just feel bad taking them away now with my one female being all broody and protective of them. Haha.

Don’t feel to bad. I don’t own ducks, but i can say for my chickens, I’ve broken many, many broodies. They won’t care. At first, they will, but most of the time they just appear dazed for a moment then walk off and continue doing chicken things. (Not always the case, some are very persistent)

Personally i prefer hatching eggs in springtime. I know you got your answers already, but i wanted to answer your first question.

So i don’t really recommend trying to get one broody if you don’t want them to be. When they go broody they like to line their nest with downy feathers. Kinda looks like a feather bomb. (To keep the babies warm) For one of mine, the first day in of being broody, more like an hour in, the whole nest was lined with downy feathers that would be on her crop.
Sometimes, it will be much later before they start doing that, it really all depends. However i will say this: If your chicken does what mine did and they all come out right away, you have two problems. 1. That will make her colder for winter. Because Downy is like a blanket for warmth.

2. The next time you want her to brood, she may have less feathers to line her nest with, because they don’t grow back very fast. (Mine still hasn’t gotten hers back, her crop is 100% naked and when she lays down it often opens up a little, because she only has a few feathers on it. Just something to think about if its very snowy there, how cold she may get)

I hope this helped! Im happy to answer questions. (If i know them, of course.)