Hi! Last night we moved our broody hen to her maternity ward and she did not lay on her clutch all night. They were in a nest in a box and I guess she didn't get that. First thing this morning I checked on her and noticed her off the eggs,and they were cold. I immediately put the clutch in the middle of her private pen and she got back on them.
My concern is the eggs getting cold. This was day 3 of incubation, is it possible that they are still viable? Thank you for any information
I hatched my first set of broody chicks last year, so take anything I say with a HUGE grain of salt. The only fertile eggs I had were mixed from my layer flock and Orpington rooster. I moved my broody at night like you did and like yours she was off the nest the nest morning....but she was sitting in a different location in the pen with no eggs. So I put the cold eggs under her to see if she was going to stay in her newly chosen spot, and she took the eggs. I gave her a couple of days to see if she would stay on them, and she did. So, at night, I took those eggs from under her and replaced them with new eggs because I didn't want to take a chance on the eggs not being viable. Brooding is stressful on the hens physically, so I didn't want to find out several days later that they weren't viable and have to start all over again and add to her stress.
In order to give her some privacy, I took a box and cut an opening in one end, then placed it over her so she would have privacy. She brooded the second set of eggs and hatched 11/11 eggs.
I will never know if the first set of eggs were viable, but to me the health of my broody was my main concern, and I didn't want to prolong her broodiness. As an aside, when she finished brooding her chicks, she was in great condition because she was eating chick feed, then she laid 2-3 eggs in the layer nesting box, then no more eggs. A couple of weeks later she disappeared, then showed up 3 weeks later with chicks. Copper Marans are known to go broody frequently and often too frequently.
I guess the long and short of it is whether or not these eggs are worth taking a chance on in terms of their fertility, assuming she stays on them from now on. From what I understand, during the first few days of incubation the embryo is very vulnerable.
Hopefully someone who knows way more than me will chime in to help you.
