What is the longest time your broody hen sat on eggs for ?

[GodofPecking]

Yes, chicks need three weeks to hatch, I know, but Broody hens will sit on bad eggs for longer than that.

Looked everywhere for an answer, can't find anything meaningful, would like to get as many ideas from as many people as possible because it is an important question when fostering eggs or chicks under a broody hen.

Sometimes a hen loses her eggs, or there are not many to justify her sitting, or she has no eggs, but if she won't sit on new eggs because she has sat too long, it's a fail. What about the weather ? please mention that in discussion, because it would come into it for sure.

I personally would go with new eggs for up to a week or so after she starts sitting, or start the incubator a week after she sits, if I can collect enough eggs, but what about other people's experiences. ?

 

[SueT]

A hen should not be allowed to stay broody for extended periods. They don't eat or drink much so they lose condition and can die if there's no intervention.
Breaking a broody cycle can be accomplished by putting the hen in a wire bottom cage/crate for 3 or 4 days straight. I break my broodies at the first sign of it when I do not want eggs hatched, and would never let one with a failed clutch try another round.

 

[GodofPecking]

Mine eat the usual amount when they are broody, I know because I hand feed them, which is not normal of course. I start with a handful of food and they peck me when I get close, and I leave the food there, next day or the one after that they peck the food instead of pecking me, and usually after one peck they turn to stone, so I poke them with the tips of the stretched out hand and they repeat pecking some food, and eating it and turning to stone, rinse, lather, repeat. This goes on until about a week where they're just GIMME THAT FOOD and gobble it up. I usually just leave a water container in reach and BE CAREFUL IT IS NOT DEEP ENOUGH FOR CHICKS TO DROWN IN. So hens in my yard, in more than the last dozen cases of broody and chick raising come to love my interference. Which is great because when they get near the end of their term or the incubator is ready, I can shove as many eggs under these happy-to-see-me-hens as I like. So eating well is part of it.

By the way, I wasn't asking how to break their broodiness, there are plenty of threads and online sources for that.

 

[aart]

Have heard of some setting more than 3 months...
...irresponsible for a keeper to allow, IMO.

I also would never feed a broody on the nest,
they need to get up and eat/drink/stretch/dust bathe....and poop!

When I want broody to set I move her to where I want her with fake eggs,
then a couple days later if she's still setting tight, I give her fresh fertile eggs.
I've only let a few hatch and never has one with all 'bad' eggs as you describe.

 

[Robert G]

This year was the first time my red cochin bantam got broody. Unfortunately she got broody in the large hens coop. Those the the eggs I pick up each day so she didn't have any. However, each time a hen laid an egg she would go sit on it. Most of my hens break out of it on their own but she kept going. After 4 weeks I kept thinking she'll give up and get up, but she wouldn't. I didnt want her to go through another 3 weeks with fresh eggs so I went to TSC and picked up 4 silkies and placed them under her at night. The next morning she had adopted them successfully. I gave them chick starter and she would call them. She raised them for about 6 weeks when she finally went back to the flock. Even today, if I mess with her babies she comes running to protect them and they're already 2 months old. But all my cochins are good moms and have accepted any chicks I've given them. So in conclusion I don't know how much longer she would go if I hadn't given her chicks.

 

[chickens really]

You can use chicken Broody to hatch out Mallard derived Ducklings so 28 days is about as long as I'd allow a Broody to brood. If not hatching anything it's best to break her from that cycle.

 

[Gray Farms]

I use to have a cochin bantam hen that would set all summer if I took her chicks and gave her new eggs. She would set for 5-6 months. She would hatch out 5 or 6 rounds of chicks. She didn't care at all that I took the chicks. She just wanted to set eggs. She even hatched 6 wild Turkey eggs once.