Two hens setting together

[Ridgerunner]

You wrote, "break the broody". How do you do that?

Break a Broody Thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2176186#p2176186

Another question... tonight while checking on the girls I found that one of the five eggs that was under the first setter had been moved over to the other hens nest. I don't understand this. That egg had to be lifted up and moved over the divider in order for that to happen. Am I going crazy? is it possible for a hen to "pick up and move" an egg?

I have never seen anything like that happen, but I have seen several others that I trust report that on this forum. Or maybe it has happened and I just assumed another hen had laid an egg in her nest. Hopefully you have the eggs marked and marked in a way so you can tell which eggs belong to which hen.

 

[Doug the Chicken Man]

I currently have two silkies sitting on seperate nests in the same 4X4 coop with 6 other banies mainly D'Uccles. Although they on oppsites of the coop, they are constantly thieving eggs back and forth. The nests have covered just about every part of the floor and nestboxes. They just wait for the other one to go due thier maintenance duties then the theiving is on. The chicks are due early next week from both of them as they both started this business on the same day. Our plan is to take the chicks from them and put them in the playpen in the house with the ones that are hatching from the incubator starting this morning. 4 out of 12 have hatched.

We will see how it goes.

 

[chuckschickens]

Thank you much! I now believe I have an idea how they are carrying these eggs. Tonight when I went to check on them I carefully lifted each hen to check the eggs underneith them and to pull out any that have been added by the other hens. The eggs were not switched around tonight but one was missing. I have never had a problem with preditors so this really alarmed me. I double checked under the hens and low and behold one of the hens felt funny. The missing egg was tucked all of the way up under her wing and held firmly against her body kind of like we could hold something in our arm pit. If anyone has any other ideas I would like to hear them. I pulled it out and checked for my mark and there it was. These chickens never seize to amaze me!

 

[mandyp]

Quote:
The first hen is setting on five eggs and the second hen is setting on two. You wrote, "break the broody". How do you do that?

Another question... tonight while checking on the girls I found that one of the five eggs that was under the first setter had been moved over to the other hens nest. I don't understand this. That egg had to be lifted up and moved over the divider in order for that to happen. Am I going crazy? is it possible for a hen to "pick up and move" an egg?

Yes it is. Mine have been doing it all week. They have also started really pecking the dickens out of each other. I'm separating them tomorrow.

 

[kathyinmo]

I actually witnessed one of my hens, "lifting," an egg from another nest. I was awestruck! Yes, that is what she did, as you described.

I currently have 4 broodies. I put 2 of them in my rabbit hutch style coop. It is 8 or 10 foot long. I put one at each end, with food and water in the center. So far, so good. The other 2 I have not moved out of their nest yet. I think I need another rabbit hutch!