Why is my broody hen get off more often as the eggs get more developed?

[Darceyhs]

My broody hen that is sitting on fertile eggs used to get off maximum two times a day and do what she needed to do. Now that the eggs are getting more developed (16 days in) she seems to be getting off the nest whenever the other chickens are making a lot of noise or whenever we are near the cage. Is this normal? Will the eggs still hatch?

 

[Judy]

That's not usual behavior for a broody. Probably the safe thing to do at this point is move them to an incubator.

 

[Darceyhs]

We also have another chicken gone broody, would it be a good idea to put her on the eggs maybe

 

[Judy]

That might work very well. I would put her in her own area, though, to avoid their fighting over the eggs. Even if your present broody is losing her broodiness, I would guess she would be likely to give the "new mama" a hard time. Do you have another small coop or a large dog pen, perhaps? Once the chicks hatch, you should be able to turn everyone loose together.

 

[Darceyhs]

The broody on the eggs is in another cage at the moment so it could even work if we did a swap but I'm not really sure, maybe I should just let nature do it's thing, usually the broodys know what they are doing.

 

[gander007]

Let her go her way but keep an eye on her as in a couple of days
she will be going into a lock down mode at about day 18 and then
watch what happens ......