Old Fashoned Hen Incubation HELP!!!

[WilsonFarm528]

I have 8 hens and a rooster, and decided to let one of my hens, a Buff Orpington, (sp?) incubate her clutch of eggs after she went broody. She'd been on them for about 2 weeks, but when i went out to the pen yesterday night another hen, a Black Austrolorp, had kicked her out and is now on the nest... Shes acting like she's broody, and she is even rotating the eggs and sleeping on the nest instead of her favorite spot on the perch... Is this ok?? Ive never tried this before, and I was planning on fencing off the area in the henhouse with the box containing the clutch and broody hen so the others wouldnt bother her and the babies when they hatched... is it too late? I also researched candling today because i figured it would b nice to see if they looked okay, but would anything show up in this part of development anyway, or would it just be all dark? Help!

 

[incubatingisfun]

somthing would show up if you candled

 

[sonew123]

I had/have a BO that has been trying to have her own babies for 2 months-she is a nasty mean hen too. She had been kicked off her nest 3 times now by bantam girls-and they have hatched out the eggs:-( I finally gave her the 4th set of eggs th "try" to have her own babies. Well-one of my batams that was almost done raising her lone little roo hopped on that nest and sadly the fat Bo sits in the next nesting box watchign her:-( I give up on her and hope she starts to lay her big ole eggs again! Id candle for sure---

 

[Kismet]

I also had a broody being pushed out of the nest by others. I gave her a milk crate on its side on the floor in a corner (I always worry about chicks falling out and not being able to get back in with mom) with hay in it. I put up a barrier so no one bothered her. She hatched out all her eggs just fine.

 

[Tropical Chook]

My one and only very large hen is a professional kidnapper. She takes over laying on the other hens eggs, and if there are no eggs available to steal, she simply kidnaps the chicks of another hen.

Just a short while ago, I placed a few eggs in the nest box to see if I could make her go broody, and fair enough, within two days she was sitting on them as if they were her own. Anyway, it turned out that none of those eggs were fertile, so after a week and a half or so, I took them away from her. Much to my surprise, she simply left the nest immediately. By the next day she had started becoming very "close" to another hen's babies, and by the following day, those babies were hers and hers only. Now, those little chicks are about two and a half or three months only and she is still nursing them....lol. Last week I got some eggs which I bought online and put them in the nest for a bantam that is broody, and I'm sure the big kidnapping hen has already got her eye on those eggs. Sometimes I see her standing in front of the nest staring at the bantam which is in there, and I'm sure she's thinking to herself ......"just you wait, if any of those hatch, I'll be taking them straight away from you, you tiny little bantam"

I'm telling you, she is so obsessed with having a family of her own that she certainly use as an egg layer.

But, I suppose it's good to have such a dependable surrogate mother on hand just in case.

 

[bragabit]

Quote:
I want pictures of this hen, so funny.

 

[LaurenM23]

OP - I'd definitely candle them...at 2 weeks you should be able to definitely see development. If the nest has already been taken over and the other hen is committed, I guess I'd just wait and see. It sounds like the first broody could benefit from being separate from the others when her time comes again, though. I feel so bad for these girls! All the work of laying, then to have the joy of hatching stolen from them! haha

Edited for spelling errors.