Our broody girl left the nest today, I guess for food and water, and went back to the wrong box. When I discovered it this afternoon, the eggs were cool to the touch. It's about 75 out, and I don't know how long she was off them. I moved her back to the right box, but is there any realistic chance any will survive? She's been setting them for about a week. In unrelated news, I have 9 pipping eggs (of 27) in my guest room right now, and the suspense is killing me.
I had a broody go off the nest once... in November. It was 45°F in the coop, 25°F outside. She'd been off long enough for them to be cold to the touch... they all survived. Congratulations on your little pippers!
YES they can and will. I had a hen leave a nest of eggs for a day and a half, and all hatched. Good luck.................
Whew, That's a relief because I had a hen leave her eggs for a good portion of the day and I was ready to start crying when I found out that the eggs had gotten cold!
ok so if a hen can leave the nest for a long while and the eggs get cold....why is it that if we are hatching eggs in the bator,we are told to open it as little as possible and for the shortest time? I'm confused. I have been candling every night since I've started to incubate, they are growing fine and very active. Yesterday someone told me that I have been doing it too much as in the temp dropping and humidity level dropping. But as I said, everything is going great with my eggs(so far). And also, I had my eggs in the fridge for about 2 weeks before bringing them to room temp and then putting them in the bator. I was told that in the fridge too long isnt a good thing.
This broody hen has to be the dumbest chicken I've ever seen. She stays on her eggs about 2 days, then consistently moves to another nest box --- sometimes where there aren't even any eggs. Next Wednesday will be day 21, and I have no idea how things will turn out. There have been at least four times when the eggs were uncovered long enough to get cool to the touch. We have another buff that went broody and has been perfect. Since this is our first time trying to let a hen hatch, I want to make sure of something: It's normal for them to lose weight, right? The one that I keep having to move back to the right box is getting pretty light, and her skin is loose. She comes off the eggs to eat from time to time, so I assume she knows what she's doing. Then again, the fact that she can't seem to get back to the same box may imply that she doesn't. (when some of these in-the-coop eggs hatch, do I need to do anything special other than put food and water near the nest box?)
I've had that happen,too. Ideally,you should isolate a hen,but my stubborn broodies sometimes refuse to take to the new nest. It may take a day or two longer for them to hatch. Oh,and about not opening the bater,the instructions that came with my old Brower recommended a 15 minute cooling period each day,until day 18. Then hen won't get up after day 18 either.