Ann,

my experience is that moving a broody hen is pretty "iffy." A lot of hens will quit when moved. So, you are doing well if she still wants those eggs and she is fenced off from the other birds. I'd let her be as long as she can keep those eggs together and under her. I wouldn't try re-arranging things again.

Some birds are better at being moved than others. I remember a bantam cochin who would follow my daughters, when they were collecting eggs and set on the egg basket if they would put it down! But with the birds I now raise, I have to set things up for them and close them in their special area ahead of time, so that they go broody where I want them to. They will never accept being moved after they settle on the nest, unless I'm putting live chicks under them instead of eggs.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Thanks for the info. I will just let her be and see what happens. I hope she will still be setting when I get home this afternoon. I hope I didn't upset her too much. I would really like to have some baby chicks.
Thanks again.

I've had more luck relocating broodies I needed to move that were a little farther along into their set...say, about 10-14 days. I think they are more committed to that particular clutch of eggs at that point. Didn't always work, but did about 75% of the time, and I haven't done it alot. When I have a broody hen setting I always have my incubator fired up and ready to take over in the event she abandons the eggs, for whatever reason. :)

Velvet ~:>

So far so good, she was still setting on the eggs yesterday afternoon and also this morning. She seems to be real dedicated. We took her off the nest yesterday afernoon to see if she would poop or stretch her legs awhile. Well she wasn't having that! She immediately got back on her nest so I just let her be. Hopefully she will stay with the eggs until they hatch. I am counting the days.

I own Delawares. I have tried relocating 2 broody's and 1 accepted it and the other did not. Your doing great. You won't need to take her off the nest to stretch or poop. She will take care of that. Broody's tend to not poop as much so when they do poop they are big and smelly you'll know. Good luck with the broody. It's a lot of fun having chickens.

Thanks, I am excited about having chicks. She is setting on 10 eggs. Do you think all 10 will hatch?

What breed is your broody? A usual clutch is 7-10 eggs. If she is a large, fluffy hen and is setting on 10 eggs, things should be OK. If she is a tiny banty trying to set on 10 large-breed chicken eggs, there will likely be problems with the hatch. Does she successfully cover the eggs when she is on them?

I know it's REALLY hard, but try to leave her be and let Mother Nature take it's course (this is going to get harder as the hatch date draws near). Resist the temptation to disturb her by checking the eggs, you don't want her to abandon the nest midway through the incubation period.

Just provide her a safe, secure area with free-choice food and water at all times, and room to stretch her legs and poop (those broody hen poops are elephantine in size and STINK). Broodies instinctively want to get as far away from the nest as possible before pooping, so as not to lead predators back to the nest. She'll come off the nest once or twice a day to eat, drink and poop--and maybe dust bathe. Expect her feathers to get a little ratty looking and she will most likely lose weight. Just compensate by offering first-class food and healthy extra tidbits here and there.

Once the chicks come, they need to be VERY secure, both from other chickens and predators. Mama hen can't be everywhere at once. Make sure to provide baby chick food in the form of chick starter (kinda powdered chicken food, looks like lay mash) or grow mash, depending on what is available in your area. Baby chicks cannot eat regular chicken scratch or pellets, they can't process it correctly and can choke on it. Chick waterers need to be arranged so chicks cannot drown in the water trough--either get a waterer with a tiny trough (I use a quail waterer) or add marbles to the water dish. Chicks can either drown in very small amounts of water or fall in, get soaked and die from getting chilled. Also, make sure the chick area is warm and free of drafts, which can also kill. Extra food goodies you give to the chicks should be diced to avoid the choking problem. I have a chicken info page here that might help:

http://home.earthlink.net/~velvetsparrow/VSChick.htm

Have fun with your chickens, having chicks is truly wonderful...and addictive, be warned!! :)

Velvet ~:>

Thanks for the info Velvet, my hen is a Buff Cochin, so she is a rather large hen. When she is setting she looks even larger. I'm pretty sure she has all the eggs covered. I'm not prepared for 10 more chicks but I will do what I have to do, like you said this can become addictive.

People told me that a broody can tell if an egg is bad and will push it out of the nest. That is exactly what my broody did. She would push an egg she didnÂt want as far from the nest as she could get it. It was difficult, as Velvet said, "to let Mother Nature take its course" and not put the egg back under her. Because we have 14 hens and 2 roosters we knew that some of the 10 eggs, we put under her would not be fertile. We got 4 chicks. Nine days later our feed store had 2 day old chicks of our breed. We bought 10. That night we would put a chick in front of the broody, she would lift herself up a little and the chick would crawl under. Her wings just kept expanding. We weren't sure she would accept them. She is a happy Mom of 14 chicks. Good thing she canÂt count and likes being a mom.

We have banties that are hiding their eggs all over. The latest batch, in the back of the toolshed, has one of the hens sitting on it most of the day. But at night she up and leaves for the coop where they've always spent the night with the other chickens.

Any chance of those eggs hatching? Or is leaving them every night certain death? If so, I wonder why she goes back? True, she is new to the whole motherhood thing.

Also- the rooster. Maybe silly, but I honestly don't know how often they need to mate to produce fertilized eggs. Each day? Or are they more like bees that only need to mate once and then will reproduce fertilized eggs? (We're new to the motherhood thing, too, at least as far as chickens.)

Our roosters are gone now, so at best only some of those clutch of eggs are even possibly fertile, unless the chicken has bee powers. Another reason to wonder why she's sitting on them.

Thanks for answers.

If the hen is leaving the eggs overnight and only setting them during the day, they will not hatch. Toss 'em before them explode. :( She needs to sit full-time, for 21 days for proper incubation, only leaving the nest for short periods to eat, drink, poop and dust bathe.

How long has the roo been gone?

Hens go broody when they feel the urge, rooster or no, bless their little chicken hearts. They just want to be mamas...

Velvet ~:>

I would suspect that a hen could produce fertile eggs for at least a week after the disapearance of the roosters. I know, with turkeys, in rural Mexico, where we lived for a while, many poor families might have but one turkey hen. When she would start making noises that indicated that she wanted a tom, they would carry her to a neighbor's and strike a deal regarding breeding her to the neighbor's tom. They'd leave her for, say, half a day, and then pick her up. From that one mating that hen would lay a full clutch of fertile eggs.

I doubt chickens can do such a feat. But I have heard, somewhere, that they can lay a number of fertile eggs from a single mating.

George

Well it's been 1 week and a day now and my hen is still setting. I don't think she gets up much, at least when I can see. She has been changing positions as far as which way she is facing so I know she is moving a little bit. Boy, that sure is dedication. I am getting excited, two more weeks to go. It doesn't look as if she is eating much of her food. Is it normal for her to go a long time without eating?

anne, it is very normal for a broody hen to set very nearly all the time, try not to worry about it. :) She will naturally eat and drink less because she doesn't need as much right now, she's not using much energy. Broodies usually end up losing a little weight and their feathers can get scraggly. it's also normal. Once the chicks hatch and she's up and about again, she'll return to normal. Just keep offering her little extra tidbits now and then (live mealworms are great) and try not to disturb her too often. You have a seperate broody pen ready for mom and the chicks when they arrive, right?

Good luck with the hatch and enjoy the chicks! :)

Velvet ~:>

Thanks Velvet, yes we currently have her in a separate wired off area in the coop. She has plenty of straw for her nest along with food and water. Do you think this will also be ok after the chicks hatch?

Here are a few things IÂve learned about broodies.

A broody hen will stop eating and drinking her comb well turn pale. The lack of food helps stops egg production after she already has a clutch. This way all her eggs should hatch at the same time. It also slows her metabolism down which helps drops her temperature down to around 100 degrees F. A chicken's body temperature is around 104-107 F. To incubate eggs the temp needs to be between 99 and 102 degrees F. Because the eggs are warmed by the skin not the feathers, a hen will loose the feathers on her breast.

When the hen leaves the nest after laying an egg, it cools which suspends the development of the embryo inside. If the ambient temperature remains between 45F and 65F, the embryos will remain viable for as long as two weeks. When the hen becomes broody and sits on her eggs for three weeks, all of the eggs will hatch at about the same time. This is why it is important for the hen to leave the nest after laying.

Thanks for the great information Woodyend. It helps me to understand things a little better. That makes sense why she wouldn't want to eat as much. This is really been a learning experience for me and thanks to everybody. You all have been really helpful. I will continue to keep everyone updated until the exciting day arrives.

Anne,

Another thing to keep in mind, is that usually, sometime during the later part of incubation, the hen will indeed get up, go to the bathroom, eat, drink and take a dust bath. Sometimes she'll do this a number of times, in fact. Some people observe the hen off the nest and panic, trying to make her get back on, or even taking her eggs away. It's usually best to ignore her and her nest. She'll almost always get back on. Eggs are benefitted by a short period of cooling and the Lord gave the hen (many of them anyway) this instinct.

George
(who has made the mistake before!)

You know, I remember reading somewhere that if the eggs stay at the higher temp range, it will cause you to have more roosters than hens. Some say, that the higher temps kill the females whilst the males can take it better. I have found this to be true when I used to incubate my eggs. Like I need more roosters lol but they are beautiful. My hens have the 50/50 average of roosters to hens. My incubator fluctuated hot and I had about a 65/35 average . Keep in mind that this is just my opinion and not a scientific study. I'm just thinking that this may be one of the reasons the hens let the eggs have a cooling off period every day.

Oh my, my hen stays on the nest all the time. I hope this doesn't mean I am going to have all roosters. HA HA. I have one rooster now that thinks he rules the roost so I don't know how he would react to having too much competition. Like you say roosters are beautiful though.

I've heard a Bantam Cochin will sit on anything, including quail eggs. Has anyone been successful? I see that bantams incubate at 101 degrees, but valley quail need 99.75 degrees, has anyone had a problem with this?

Well I finally saw my hen get off her nest yesterday for a short time to poop and I had a chance to look at the eggs. There are 7 eggs now where there was 10 to start with. What could have happened to the 3 eggs? Has anyone had this happen? I'm thinking she might have broken them. I didn't see many shells so I'm wondering what could have happened? She immediately got back on her eggs though and didn't leave them for long. I said if she doesn't have any babies it sure isn't because she's not trying, she has sure been dedicated. One week and 2 days to go.

Don't be surprised if they start hatching a day or so earlier than when you figured. I've seen 20 days a couple of times and once it was 19 compared to my calculations. Probably off because the eggs were a day older than when I started counting or something.

Just a little story re broody hen, we rescued some battery hens last year and bought them on untill they feathered up and were healthy again. They run freerange in about and acre of ground. One of the ex-battery hens became broody this year. Our Cockerall was killed by a fox this spring and so I bought in 12 fertile eggs, she had been broody for about 5 days when I put the eggs in our broody run nest and moved her there. She sat them wonderfully and has just hatched the lot. All goes to show that tho they try to breed broodiness out of laying hens nature has a ways sometimes. Hallo everyone by the way I am a new member on this site and look forward to drawing on other expertise in the gardening forums.

We have banties that are hiding their eggs all over. The latest batch, in the back of the toolshed, has one of the hens sitting on it most of the day. But at night she up and leaves for the coop where they've always spent the night with the other chickens.

Any chance of those eggs hatching? Or is leaving them every night certain death? If so, I wonder why she goes back? True, she is new to the whole motherhood thing.

Also- the rooster. Maybe silly, but I honestly don't know how often they need to mate to produce fertilized eggs. Each day? Or are they more like bees that only need to mate once and then will reproduce fertilized eggs? (We're new to the motherhood thing, too, at least as far as chickens.)

Our roosters are gone now, so at best only some of those clutch of eggs are even possibly fertile, unless the chicken has bee powers. Another reason to wonder why she's sitting on them.

Thanks for answers.

Well,its day 19 now and my hen is still setting on her eggs.I don't hear any chirping coming from the eggs though. Does anyone know how many days before hatching the chirping occurs? Hopefully I will hear some soon.

I tend to hear peeping the day of the hatch, and it can be quite loud! Of course, that was in an incubator, and you may not notice it so much because of momma hen.

I always leave my eggs for 23 days to catch any stragglers, that way I figure I've given them all a fighting chance. :)

Velvet ~:>

Well its been 22 days and still no hatching. I am beginning to think maybe there won't be. What could have caused them not to hatch? She sure has been trying, setting on them for the full 3 weeks. Could it be they weren't fertile? Maybe she happened to be setting on the few eggs that didn't get fertilized. I don't know, this has been a learning experience for me. I was hoping to have at least one or two by now.Should I leave her for another day or two or should I just take her off and destroy the eggs?

By all means give her a couple more days.

Give her a few days, what have you got to lose?

Is it possible that some of the eggs were laid later than other? If this is the case, you may get a staggered hatch. You have to either isolate broodies hatching eggs, or mark the eggs they are on--the other hens will be quite crafty and keep depositing eggs under her the whole time. :)

Velvet ~:>

Well I guess there aren't going to be any chicks. I decided to lift her off the eggs yesterday just to see if anything was happening and there weren't but two eggs left, the others had broken and there were no signs of any chicks. So I took the other two eggs and tried to listen carefully for any chirping, there wasn't any. So I decided to take them from her, she was out walking in the pen with her feathers still ruffled but she wasn't acting like she wanted to get back on the nest right away. One of the eggs cracked when I put it in the compost pile and I saw that it was a bad egg. I didn't feel so bad after that knowing it wasnt a good egg anyway. I'm wondering why they didn't hatch. Out of ten eggs you would think one or two would have hatched. Does that mean that all ten eggs weren't fertile? Oh well I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe I will have better luck next time. Is there a way I can tell if an egg is fertile or not beforehand?
Thanks for the info.
Anne