Question for natural incubation folks

[Chicken Keith]

Talking standard size chickens, how many eggs do you usually set under your hens to effectively incubate? How many eggs is too many? This is a poll, and there are no wrong answers. Just curious what you think. A wild mallard duck (roughly same size as a small standard chicken) who hatched a clutch of eggs in my backyard this spring incubated 10 eggs and 7 ducklings hatched. Is mother nature's number, the magic number 7?

 

[sumi]

You can set as many eggs as the hen can comfortably cover. Personally, prefer to give them no more than 12 eggs. I've had hens hatch 12/12 eggs and I've had hens hatch 1/8 eggs, there is no magic number. It depends on the hen, if she's a good sitter, the eggs, are they fresh, fertile etc.

 

[Pancholoco]

No more than 12 here too.

 

[boyswithchicks]

One of my RIR has just hatched 10/11 and a Light Susssex covered 16 and hatched 13. Have just set 14 under a Australorp and a further Light Sussex is currently covering 14.

 

[LTygress]

I think it would also depend on the breed. Some chicken breeds are naturally larger than others. I wouldn't put the same number of eggs under a Modern Game hen, that I would put under a Brahma.

But I've had one mixed-breed hen successfully sit on 16 eggs, and hatch every last one of them.