Never had fertile eggs for my Broody hen before.

[DEBRA56]

I am in a new experiment. My broody hen has been moved to a secure large cage all by herself with food & water. She was pissed for the 1st hour but has settled in nicely. I'm hoping to have a couple of chicks on June 11th, the 21 day hatch time.

Also, I got 6 fertilized eggs from a friend but now there are only 3. Going out tonight to candle the eggs on day 5 & to see if their are veins inside & make sure the 3 are still there.

 

[Webigail]

Also, I got 6 fertilized eggs from a friend but now there are only 3. Going out tonight to candle the eggs on day 5 & to see if their are veins inside & make sure the 3 are still there.

So my hen was broody for a couple weeks while I waited for eggs to arrive. I checked on her twice a day and when she would leave the nest to eat or drink I could check her eggs. Sometimes there were more because my other hens would lay in the nest also. Once the eggs arrived I waited a day for them to settle and then watched for her to leave the nest. The nest is 12x13 so not that big. I switched out the 6 eggs she had under her for 12 fertile eggs. She sat on them no problem. I also took the other 12 eggs I ordered with hers and put them in an incubator. They started hatching under her this past Friday and in the incubator Saturday. I've taken the first incubator chick to her and she adopted it immediately. I have two more to give her tomorrow.

The other hens have left her alone the whole 21+ days but did peck at a loose chick which prompted her to cluck worriedly. I moved that hen and ushered the chick back to mama. Marking your fertile eggs is a good thing. I didn't because the fertile eggs were so much lighter than my hens eggs and coated in something Shiney so if another hen layer am egg in her nest or she dragged another to her nest I would know. I would check every time I caught her out. I separated she and the chicks from the others with a cardboard barricade. She's on day 3 of having live chicks. This is my first time doing this and have been raising hens since June 2020.