Broody Question

I have a few too many eggs coming from various sources. Know what I mean? Limited incubator capacity

So my Marans and Welsummer have finally gotten off their nests after more than a months of being broody. They look awful--combs are all shriveled and grey.

But Buttercup, the BO, has only been brooody about a week and a half--she actually got up and chased my female German Shepherd away when she got too close. So she is very dedicated.

Can I put any of my new eggs under her? Right now she is incubating wooden toy eggs--she threw the ping pong balls out! Is she too far into it to complet the incubation?

Too funny regarding the ping pong balls.

I bet Harmony will know something about this. I think you can probably put new eggs under her but can't say for sure.

Will keep checking in on this thread to see what the advice is!
Claire

Catscan,

I'd say yes to a new batch of eggs beneath the Buff Orp hen. Chickens tend to be broody for a few weeks longer than the time required to hatch a new batch and you should get her into a separate brooding box away from the rest of the flock where you can feed and water her in isolation. A cardboard box with a lid and vented ought to do fine ... small hole or two so she can see a bit of light. Let her out for 15-20 minutes daily to feed and drink at lunch time or when you get off work. This methods works wonderfully well for me.

Kelly in Moxee

This message was edited Oct 2, 2008 4:37 PM

Yes indeed put as many under her is will fit just make sure you put them under all on the same date you can't stagger these like you can in an incu.

It's a fact broody hens will never get off the nest as long as there is something that resembles a egg in the nest.

My lemon blue was sitting on 7 eggs and they turned out to be infertile so i stuffed some fake ones under her and she sat for 2 more weeks before i had some eggs to put under her so she has actually been setting about 40 days and counting.

Thats why you can't stagger the egg dates the first chicks will starve while she waits on the other eggs to hatch or she will abandon the unhatched ones in favor of getting the hatched chicks out to feed and water.

Other than you might loose your fingers, why couldn't you take the chicks out and feed and water them?

When you say stagger... I really am confused.. when do hens decide its time to sit.. what if there is only one egg.. will they lay another.. or 2 or 3.. wouldn't that be a few days apart? I remember seeing, as a kid hens walking by with a line of chicks all around her.. wouldn't that be a chick a day? Wouldn't that be staggered?

Please don't anyone think I am being a smarty pants.. I am really asking, I do not know.

Edited to ask... do you candle a hens eggs?

This message was edited Oct 2, 2008 8:01 PM

Hens decide it's time to sit when they have a "magic number" of eggs, usually. Supposedly this is generally between 4 and 12 eggs, depending on the hen. If they are brooding on no eggs, they are confused. Apparently the eggs that they are laying (like one a day or every other day) will just be in a "hold" until the hen decides to set more permanently. They only start to develop when she sets on them all and makes them all warm and humid. So the egg laid on day 1 and day 10 start to actually develop at the same time. Day 1 egg is older but wasn't developing because she wasn't sitting on it 24/7. Day 10 egg is brand new and starts to develop the same time as day 1 egg. So they are staggered in their laying, but not in the setting part. If you start to stick new eggs under a hen that has already been brooding a bunch of eggs, like Harmony said, that would be staggering, so the ones she has already been brooding would hatch first, and she will probably abandon the eggs you put under her later because although they might be developing, they are not going to hatch at the same time as the first set of eggs she started to brood on. Maybe you could add an egg for a day or 2, but not more than that.

I learned all this from my raising chickens book by Gail Damerow.

I candle using a small LED flashlight that is very bright. I do it in a very dark room. I put the flashlight up to the top and bottom of the egg while I hold it in my hand. Generally, unless they are very dark eggs, you can see if they are developing by around day 6.

Excellent advice Claire i thought i had covered most everthing on this.

You can not stagger eggs under a hen and to remove them would be cruel to the hen. Hens become very attached to their eggs and in the last few days before hatch will TALK to her eggs and they in turn can HEAR her and they are bonded even before they hatch. Chicks that are removed from their mother go thru exstreme stress and will peep excessively for their mother and may not eat or drink and the hen will be under exstreme stress loseing her babys and being under this stress will abandon any eggs left in the nest in the search for her chicks. Incu chicks hear the hum of the incu and therefore are bonded to nothing but the other chicks which they can hear peeping in their eggs and the noises they hear in the incu that is why they are so bonded when they hatch and will sit by the other eggs waiting for them to hatch.
I sold a pair of chickens to a man he didn't feed them to well and the hen laid one egg and went broody. The mans daughter begged to let the egg hatch and he agreed to let it hatch some time passed and he became impatient. He told his daughter the hen was stupid and she had been sitting on that egg long enough. To prove to his daughter who protested him removeing the egg that the egg was no good he dropped it on a stump. When it hit out came a bloody chick and his daughter was devastated and and ran in the house and all he could do was stand there and look at what he had done. he told me this story after the fact and said the hen almost starved herself to death greaving and he had to hand feed her just to keep her alive.

Oh my goodness, what a horrible thing to happen. Some people take a positive learning opportunity for their child and turn it into a traumatic experience. Poor hen. I hope she is OK now. And I hope he learned his lesson.

The hen is still alive but he still won't let her set.(fear is a powerful thing)