Minerva went broody a while back and found herself a lovely spot under the 50' pine tree nicely surrounded by stinging nettles. After a previous failed attempt at moving her, we fenced her in and let her at it. She has her own feed and water and usually once per day we see her out from the nest. The problem/question is how long do we let her try? She's been under that tree for 32 days. We can't get in to her, but with contortions can kind of see her and her nest. We found a broken egg in the water dish 2 days ago (water dish is maybe 6' from her)...now whether it was a hatch or something else we don't know. We haven't seen any lings. We haven't heard anything. We have a low dish with food and chicken waterer that we added last week to discourage drowning. How long do we wait before we put her back with everyone else (before we give up)? Is there a chance she has lings and they aren't coming out/making any noise? Should we try to get in and take a look? Is it worth the risk? We want to increase the flock and this seemed easier than dragging out the incubator...any guidance that you can offer would be appreciated!
