Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[farmerChef]

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If you had a rotten egg, you could smell it! I had one in the bator last hatch. Opened the bator the day before, nothing, next day, the smell almost knocked me back! I triple baggied it and set it in the trash, and then took the trash out. I would have just tossed it way in the woods behind our house, but that smell will linger for days!

 

[Miss Lydia]

That might be true I don't doubt your word farmer Chef, but my hen was sitting on eggs and it was day 21, I opened one up and about threw up it was so stinky, but couldn't smell nothing on the outside, the reason I opened the egg was because I candled and there was nothing living in there. so maybe you can't smell them all.

 

[Heartlandrabbitry]

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saw the air sack and some of the egg was dark but not all of it! I also tried the tapping but I didn't hear anything

I'm hoping if she has chicks that she has them soon!

Dont give up hope yet! I really hope you get some chicks

I'll be watching for good news on your posts.

Thank you, we are hoping we get chicks too! How long should we let her sit on them? She's still going strong and taking very good care of her eggs!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thats a hard question, one of my hens was sitting on 4 eggs and day 21 was last thursday, well nothing happend so I candled and could see an air sac, and a dark place but no movement at all, so took a chance a broke an egg open it was just about rotten, so since I candled them all I went ahead and opened them all the were just like a regular egg. I'm thinking you would see movement if they were viable. but please don't do anything because of what I am saying you will have to make that decision yourselves. I went ahead and gave my little hen 3 more eggs yesterday and she is still sitting. so here we go again another 21 days. as long as she wants too and is healthy I'll let her. hope yours turns out better than mine did.

 

[Heartlandrabbitry]

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I candled them yesterday and didn't see any movement either, but I can always try again! If you really don't see any movement could that kind of be a sign that nobody's home? I hope you have better luck next time too!

I didn't know chickies could be so hard to hatch

 

[Wyogirl]

Loved this article very helpful!!!!

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Thanks for posting that. What a great source of information. I'm trying to figure out how to manage my first broody. She, of course, knows what to do as it's not her first time, but it is mine. That article gave me some really good ideas for setup.

 

[Heartlandrabbitry]

I recandled the eggs and...

I saw movement in one egg!! The fat end of the egg was all dark and then the top of the egg looked like it had a ring of blood vessels? That's where I saw the movement, so maybe this egg was layed after she started sitting on them? So not sure when this one will hatch!

Really excited though!

Edit: I'm guessing the eggs is about 17 to 18 days old by looking at pictures! So hoping for a chick soon!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thats great HeartLand, so just let it go till it hatches and she'll leave the nest when it all over then you can take out the ones that don't hatch. It's not hard at all to let mama do, it's my fault for putting brahma eggs under her, my hens are too big for my bantam roo to make contact so to speak. so this time she is on bantam eggs that I know are fertile. Keep us updated on progress!!!

 

[pontoosuc]

I'm reading all of these pages.

We have our first broody hen. Once she was sitting for 3 days I got some fertile eggs from
my friend. Just finished 14 days.

She is in the lower middle box of 3 over 3 nest boxes and it has about a 6" high wall in the front.
The boxes are about 20" off the floor. She is fearless when any other hen comes by.

When, and should I, move her? We have 15 chickens total, no roosters. Our coop is large and I have
plenty of space to make a separate area for she and the chicks (if they hatch).

Input is appreciated. Love the thread, very much fun to read.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hi pontoosuc, and congratulations on the broody, I have one left still brooding, my other 6 just hatched theirs out all in the last 3 weeks. If you move her and the eggs now most likely she will go back to the nest box unless you can close her up in the area your going to make for her. You can also wait till the chicks hatch and move them then because you wouldn't want them to accidently fall out of the nest box and not be able to get back in. so it's up to you, I finally moved all the nest boxes to the floor because I found a chick outside of the nest box last year and really didn't think it would make it but it did. So now ours all on the floor with shaving piled up high enough so there can't be any problems. Wishing you all the best and look forward to hearing how it comes out.