Questions, questions!

[dhansen]

I have 4 chickens and one rooster(not on purpose). We got home from vacation to see one momma sitting on 19 eggs(very exciting!!), not all her own. That was 2 1/2 weeks ago. She occasionally gets up and another chicken runs in to lay an egg. There are now 30+ eggs. We know some of them are fertilized as one fell out of the box and there was a baby chick forming. Obviously, the newly laid eggs will not hatch with the others. It makes us sad to think those babies will die once the other chicks are born. Can we do anything about this?

 

[tiffanyh]

You can move her to a place all her own. That way she can take care of just the eggs that are fertilized. Your right to be concerned that she will get up when most of the eggs hatch, leaving the other to perish. If you have an incubator, once the majority hatch and she gets up, you can throw the others in the incubator until they hatch. after they hatch you MAY be able to sneak them under her.

I moved mine to a medium size dog kennel in our shed and let her out for a bit during the day (actually I left the door open and she was able to come and go, but chose to stay).

Hope things go well.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

At a certain number of eggs we mark the eggs with a soft pencil to identify the old ones then remove any new eggs each day.