Question about incubating....

[nataschild2002]

I have a hen that has went broody and she is sitting on a clutch that is just too big for her I plan on taking some of the fertile eggs and putting them in my incubator ...Im not sure how far along these eggs are so I can't guess when they will hatch so my question is will it be safe to put these eggs on the auto turner til hatch ? I may not be able to be around to turn them manually. Any help will be appreciated

 

[bobbi-j]

If you don't have any idea when they're due to hatch, I wouldn't put them in the turner. Has she been sitting on all the eggs for the same amount of time, or does she have eggs at various stages of incubation? Do you have any rough idea at all as to how long she's been on these eggs?

 

[nataschild2002]

Various stages and hens...I have 5 nest boxes in this coop and all of my hens seem to want to use the box she is in... what happens is they squeeze in with her lay their egg leave and she scoops them up under her. One chick has hatched so far so I assume a few of the eggs will follow My concern is that there seems to be eggs she is not covering I fear she just has too many under her which made me think of the incubator but with her setting and stealing eggs there really is no way for me to tell when they were laid. Would it be feasible to move her and the clutch to a brooder or will this transition be bad for the eggs and force her to stop setting ?

 

[bobbi-j]

The thing about eggs at various stages of incubation is, she will only sit for a certain amount of time after the first one has hatched. After that, she will think that the others weren't viable and leave the nest, killing the abandoned eggs. Depending on how long she's had that many eggs, some may have started to develop, gotten pushed out from under her and died anyway. In your situation, I'd be tempted to leave her be, see how many she hatches before she leaves the nest, and then ditch the rest of the eggs. In the future, if you know for sure your hen is broody, give her some eggs all at once, and either separate her or mark the eggs so you know which are hers, and which have been laid by others in her nest. You will want to check and collect them every day...

 

[nataschild2002]

I will try that next time... thank you very much for your help

When the first chick was hatched I placed it with another hen who already hatched out her chicks in a brooder thankfully she adopted the baby right away.

 

[bobbi-j]

Oh, good! Glad that worked out for you. Hopefully you'll get more out of your current broody. Chickening is a life-long learning experience, and as soon as you think you've figured out the rules, they change the game!