We have a broody! ... somewhere

[Dr.Dale]

Have you tried candling to see in any are viable?

Not yet. I only found them this morning, so it hasn’t been dark yet.

 

[Dr.Dale]

Either she has been laying there longer than you thought, or she is stealing eggs from the other hens ...

I think it is probably a bit of both. We have about 30 pullets/hens, so nests that we find around the property always have at least a dozen. So I am pretty certain that any nest has eggs from many hens. But I suspect she has been at it longer than I originally thought because I just noticed that she was missing a week ago and usually I don’t notice things right away.

 

[Dr.Dale]

Well, just when I thought I had it figured out ...

So the nest I took the photo of is clearly abandoned. She hasn’t been on it all day. But I don’t see her around either, so I think she is still broody. Which means that she must be sitting on a different nest

I think I am still going to candle these eggs and see if anyone was incubating them.

 

[Dr.Dale]

I took my daughter out on a chicken hunt! I thought the broody might be on a different nest in the same juniper bush area. Sure enough, her nest is well hidden. It is like a where’s Waldo book, but see if you can spot the hen right in the middle of the photo!

 

[Banditschickens]

She's a nice red hen.
That is if found the correct bird..lol

 

[Dr.Dale]

She's a nice red hen.
That is if found the correct bird..lol

She is buff but the shadows mess with the camera and makes her look red in the photo

 

[Shadrach]

So, what did you do in the end @Dr.Dale ?

 

[Dr.Dale]

Last night me and one of my sons went to the new nest. I grabbed the hen and he grabbed the eggs of the new nest. Turns out that the new nest is just a single egg!

So we took her to a broody pen we had set up and we will let her sit on her clutch of one egg.

 

[CayugaJana]

Last night me and one of my sons went to the new nest. I grabbed the hen and he grabbed the eggs of the new nest. Turns out that the new nest is just a single egg!

So we took her to a broody pen we had set up and we will let her sit on her clutch of one egg.

You never know with them! Was the other nest all duds?

 

[centrarchid]

I have bottomless 4 foot x 4 foot pens that I can take and place over the broody hen while she is on the nest at night. It is placed over her after she comes off nest for the day and partially lifted each morning so she can come out and do her business. It provides excellent protection from owls and opossums. In your situation, once hatching gets underway, then you can move entire lot to a safer location.

Moving broody and clutch prior to day 19 of incubation seldom works as hen is imprinted on nest site location more than developing embryos. Once embryos start talking to mother through shell then you can move.