Useless broody!

[chuckachucka]

Anyone else have experience of broody hens not sitting properly? I have a silkie who in her eleven months of life has gone broody three times already. She starts sitting and just sits and sits except for her daily short break. Great, right?

Wrong. I gave her one egg the second time she went broody because I felt bad about breaking her again, but it did not hatch. After 26 days alive in the shell it died, still with the yolk not absorbed fully (I checked and it was still alive day 25).

This time I optimistically gave her eight eggs to sit on but it is now day 21 and no signs of hatching. they all seemed to be developing as normal when I candles them along the way, BUT I think I know what the problem is:

Several times while checking on her on her nest, I found one or more of the eggs either half poking out from under the hen or completely out and cold.


The same thing happened with the single egg last time, so it isn't an issue of too many eggs for her to cover. She just can't seem to keep the eggs under her properly, despite having nothing to do all day but arrange them! I've never seen this in a hen before and I'm worried about the eggs with her now.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'd look at the nest itself. Does it have a bit of a depression to corral the eggs?
What is the nesting material? If an embryo is alive on day 25, the egg was too cool throughout. If she is sitting tight throughout, the egg was cooled some other way.
I'd also try about 4 LF eggs or 6 bantam eggs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'd look at the nest itself. Does it have a bit of a depression to corral the eggs?
What is the nesting material? If an embryo is alive on day 25, the egg was too cool throughout. If she is sitting tight throughout, the egg was cooled some other way.
I'd also try about 4 LF eggs or 6 bantam eggs.