she keeps stealing eggs!!!

[heathersboers]

I have a broody Cochin...we have tried to break her and the other 4 from being broody but to no avail...I guess they want to be mommies that bad.finally I let one set some duck eggs...6 of them...well today...day 3 ..we go out there and she has a full dozen of Cochin and duck eggs under her fat poofy butt. She has been stealing the others eggs!!They aren't gonna hatch at the same time...so what do we do??? Take the duck eggs when her eggs hatch?
All of my cochins are going broody...one is even sitting on a white Chinese goose egg.....sheesh.....

 

[ralleia]

You're going to have to somehow prevent her from stealing any more eggs, or at the very least mark those that she already has so that you can swipe back any new ones that she steals.

If she swipes more eggs than she can effectively cover, then she won't be able to keep the all warm and most likely ALL of the chicks will die in their shells.

Also, are you certain that she is actually stealing the eggs? Usually what happens is that the broody gets up once a day to eat and drink, and while she is off the nest a bird or two sneaks in there and makes an additional deposit to the nest.

In either case, she won't be able to cover any more eggs and you have to prevent her from getting any more.

 

[WingingIt]

I agree, you'll need to mark the ones she's supposed to be sitting on and remove the others daily.

 

[makybe]

Yep mine did that too so I numbered them, worked a treat.