New broody hen assistance

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Eliseo0900

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So i have a new hampshire red hen who just went broody for her first time, and its been i think 2 weeks already. The first week i waited just to see if she actually was committed and i think she is. She was at first sitting on 2 infertile eggs and after a week i swapped them out for some eggs i bought online: a serama egg, easter egg and 2 unknowns. And after 1 night 1 egg started weeping and i tossed that out. But the easter egg and the other dark brown one dont show development so far, but there is in the serama. Its day 5 for the eggs.

So if i was just to leave the serama egg will the hen continue to sit on it?
 
Hello and welcome to BYC!
frow.gif


If she is truly broody, she will probably set for the standard 3 to 4 weeks. At least most of them do and if she has been a successful broody in the past, she will no doubt set for this length of time. But she doesn't know anything about swapping eggs. So if this egg is going to go past her time frame of setting, you may need to be ready with an incubator. Natural incubation is definitely better than artificial so give it a try! Just keep an eye on her and the egg. Candle it along the way too so you know if it is fertile or not. Also, hens don't stagger a hatch..in other words if her original clutch hatches on the 24th and this egg is due to hatch on the 28th, she won't hang around to wait for it and will abandon to take care of the chicks that have hatched. This is built into their brains so they will care for the ones that are alive.

Good luck with your broody! :-)
 
Hi :welcome

Glad you could join the flock! Congrats on your broody hen! After 5 days of incubation I would leave the eggs with the hen. Dark eggs can often be hard to candle and any development may be missed on that first candle. I know I've not seen development in darker eggs untill day 10 so I was so pleased I left them and re checked. All too often eggs are discarded as clear only to be opened up and an embryo found.

Wishing you the very best of luck and here is a thread you might like to check out ~ https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ody-hen-hatch-a-long-and-informational-thread

Enjoy BYC :frow
 
Also, im a bit worried cuz the serama egg has a detached air cell, its a free floater. But i can see it developing, but idk why but im a bit worried about the serama egg.
 
I'm afraid not a lot can be done for a detached air cell under a hen. Nature will have to take its course.
There is a section on detached air cells in this article, but it mainly covers them being in an incubator ~ https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101
 

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