She has definately gone broody!! - PICS added

[BrownEggFan]

I went to the coop to collect the eggs on Monday evening and was surprised to find one of my Red Sex Link hens sitting in the nesting box. She jumped up right away and headed into the run. I gathered up the eggs and didn't think much else of it. Yesterday, I went down around 6:15 and there she was, sitting in the same box. She is one of my late-in -the-day layers and I figured she would leave soon. I came back at 7:30 and she was still there...so I start to think maybe she has gone broody. One more trip at 8:45 and I found the other 5 hens and my roo on on the perch sleeping and there's Valjean asleep in the nesting box. I gently chased her off as she pecked incessantly at my hand. I placed her on the roost with the others and gathered up the eggs. Tonight I went for the eggs and once again, there she sat.
This time, I left her alone and installed a pop door (I hadn't gotten around to that yet and there has been a skunk in the coop at least once eating the eggs) so that she would be safe from predators. I have both RSL and ISA Brown Hybrid hens and she is sitting on both types of eggs. The crazy thing about all this is that I just put a batch of eggs in the bator on Tuesday morning before I knew this was happening!!!

 

[CheerfulHeart2]

She definitely sounds broody! Happy hatching!

 

[pgpoultry]

If you want you can put the eggs from the incubator under her. Momma hen won't mind that she is sitting for less than 21 days. I move them at all stages of incubation from the incubator to the broody hen without a problem (Just make sure that all the eggs are at the same stage of incubation).

Sandie

 

[BrownEggFan]

Sandie,

I put 6 eggs under her last night and when I checked this morning, there are 4 that she is not covering and are cool to the touch. I'm going to pull those out and just let her set on the 4 that are under her. Thanks for the input!

Paul

 

[BrownEggFan]

Good News!! I just went to the coop to pull the 4 uncovered eggs out and she is setting on them now too!

YAHOO! So now I have 8 eggs under my broody hen and 6 in the incubator. Now, where am I going to put all these chicks???

 

[pgpoultry]

Hi Paul,

They DO seem to do that i.e let some get coldish. My broody had left two out from under her belly earlier today, but had scooped them in again later. If hens are going to leave a particular egg it is usually well away from her, and almost always if you crack this one open it will either be infertile or the embryo will have died. They seem to know.

In earlier hatches I have found that even eggs that were quite cold went on to hatch. So it is probably best to leave it entirely up to the hen to eject those she knows will not hatch,

Good Luck,

Sandie

 

[Ridgerunner]

You sound like you know what you are doing but I'll mention it anyway. I trust you marked the eggs you want her to hatch so if any others show up you can remove them.

Another thought. You have 14 eggs total in the incubator or under the broody. They are so close together in age, you should be able to get her to raise all the ones that hatch. No need for you to manage a brooder!

Good luck!

 

[BrownEggFan]

Ridgerunner,

Well, I'm glad I sound like I know what I'm doing, because this is only my second time around and I've only had chickens for a little over 2 months. My first batch in the bator was 8 ISA Brown Hybrid eggs and there were 4 that fully developed but never hatched and 4 that quit developing around day 7 or 8. That was a homemade still-air bator and I've since built a forced-air unit that the 6 eggs are in. All 14 eggs were set within 2 days of each other; the 6 I placed under my broody were stored for 3 days on the counter as I was going to give them to a friend, but he hadn't got his bator up and running yet.
These eggs were marked #1 - #6 (based on when they were collected) and the other two were simply marked with an "X" so I know what's what. My only concern is can I keep 14 chicks with 6 hens and a rooster in a 4' x 4' coop with an 8' x 6' run? I'm thinking I will need to build a separate housing facility for my little family...

 

[BrownEggFan]

Also, so far my other hens have been cooperative and are laying in the other nesting box, but we'll see if that keeps up!

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you haven't had a broody hatch before, you might look in this thread. Different opinions but some good info.

Isolate a Broody? Thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=213218

I'll give you another thread that talks about a broody raising chicks with the flock, but I do not think you have enough room for that. I'd suggest you start building a good predator-proof area for Mama and all those chicks. You'll need more room as your flock gets bigger anyway. As far as the chicks getting certain immunities when raised with the flock, I think they'll get those immunities from Mama and you don't really need to raise them with the entire flock for the chicks to get those immunities.

Raise with flock? thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=215937&p=1

Good luck!