Two hens sharing brood duty.

[PeppyLaRoo]

Two O Shamo hens sitting on the same clutch of eggs. I noticed the black hen began sitting recently on two eggs. I brought back 5 more eggs I was saving to incubate. A couple of days later I noticed the black & white hen had joined the black hen in the large nesting box. Yesterday which was day 8 I nudged the hens up to count the eggs. They were jointly sitting on 16 eggs now. There is also another hen in the run who may have contributed to the total Should be fun to see how many hatch.

 

[nchls school]

Two O Shamo hens sitting on the same clutch of eggs. I noticed the black hen began sitting recently on two eggs. I brought back 5 more eggs I was saving to incubate. A couple of days later I noticed the black & white hen had joined the black hen in the large nesting box. Yesterday which was day 8 I nudged the hens up to count the eggs. They were jointly sitting on 16 eggs now. There is also another hen in the run who may have contributed to the total Should be fun to see how many hatch.

Consider marking the eggs so you can remove any fresh eggs laid. Brooding hens sharing a nest sometimes leads to problems; putting a low divider across the large nest would solve any problems if the large nest is big enough to split If you do this make the divider low enough so the hens can see into each others nests and be able to move to the nest that is uncovered, but high enough so eggs can not be pulled from one nest to the other.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would mark the eggs too, otherwise you will end up with staggered hatch and abandoned unhatched eggs that will die, remove daily or every other day the ones that aren't marked, I've had hens co parent it worked really good for me.

Make sure they don't sit too many eggs or some won't get covered and turned properly and the whole clutch could fail if an egg spends even one day not properly covered.

 

[PeppyLaRoo]

Thanks for the advice. Marking the eggs makes sense. I'm expecting a staggered hatch for sure. After a reasonable time I might move any unhatched eggs to an incubator and see if I can get a few more to hatch that way. I don't think I can divide the nesting box.

 

[nchls school]

Thanks for the advice. Marking the eggs makes sense. I'm expecting a staggered hatch for sure. After a reasonable time I might move any unhatched eggs to an incubator and see if I can get a few more to hatch that way. I don't think I can divide the nesting box. 

You're welcome.