Using a Broody Hen

[tracyork]

Hi everyone,
I have questions about using a broody hen to hatch eggs. I've had chickens for a while, but I'm embarking on the next phase of chickenmania- hatching my own! so i have the hen and the eggs just arrived this morning, but i was wondering if anyone has any pointers. I was going to wait until this evening to slip them under her, to reduce the agitation a bit. My egg supplier was very generous and sent me 15 beautiful eggs. I'm afraid that is quite a few for her, but I hate to waste any either. any thoughts? My hen is a Welsummer, and probably only just about a year, so she is a bit petite...

any advice would be greatly appreciated!
thanks,

tracy

 

[huntinwidow]

Me too! I am expecting my eggs Sat. I hope

I am wondering how many I should try to get her to cover. And I want to move her out of the main coop into a small pen. Should I do it before the eggs get here?

 

[tracyork]

We did that part last weekend. We converted our chicken tractor into a full service hen and chicks retreat, and then moved Wilma over to her new nestbox one evening so she could get used to it. She was a little disconcerted at first, and kept trying to get back to her other nest (even though it was empty), but then she settled right down and has barely budged since. I figured one step at a time might be better, but who knows?

 

[dancingbear]

Did you candle to see if the air cells are intact? If they are, they could do really well. If they aren't, it will be interesting to see if any hatch at all.

There's a lot of question as to whether eggs with damaged air cells will hatch under a hen at all. Most try to hatch those upright in cartons, with some success.

Good luck, I hope Wilma has a good hatch, but 15 may be too many. Can she cover them all with none poking out? If so, they may be just fine. I had 12 under a fairly small hen, I though it might be too many, but when I candled, all but 1 was fine. Developing nicely!

 

[huntinwidow]

Bump