A few weeks ago I had a broody hen that left the nest so I quickly moved her eggs to the incubator. Some of the eggs were laid at different times so once the marked ones hatched, I set the rest of them under a different broody hen who was sitting on her own eggs. She was fine with that, I candled on one of her "breaks" and removed any bad eggs and she settled in nicely. One of the eggs hatched, how stinkin' cute, and I realized quickly that they needed their own space since the little stinker kept falling/jumping out of the nesting box. The other chickens didn't seem to mind her running around, but still, momma broody was obviously torn between sitting on her eggs and protecting her crazy baby. 3 days ago, I moved momma and baby to their own coop since the juveniles moved out and transitioned to the big coop... everything was fine, then yesterday morning momma broody left the nest for quite some time with the baby...teaching her how to be a chicken, I suppose. The heat index here is between 100 and 103 degrees F. with very high humidity so I'm not sure if that was a factor. Today she was fine, she moved the nest but was still sitting on it. Just now, I went to check on them and she has spread the eggs all over the inside of the coop, burying some of them in the shavings. Does this mean she's done? Does this mean anything? These two broody's were my first so I am still learning.
