How long chickens sit on eggs

You can encourage a hen to go broody by leaving artificial eggs in the nest for an extended period. You can buy artificial eggs from the Omlet Shop here. You should place several in the nest and leave them for an extended period. Your hen might move on and off the nest for longer and longer periods. Finally, she might stay on the nest for at least 24 hours and then she is broody. Now you just need to place some real eggs under her to hatch!

Artificial eggs look and feel just the real thing and can be used to fool a hen into becoming broody. Your will look after the eggs Once the hen has gone broody - she will become very protective over the eggs and ward off predators such as you and to try to keep other hens from laying in her nest box.

If you try to approach the nest or pick her up - she will make angry clucking noises and might attempt to peck you. To facilitate keeping her eggs warm, a broody hen will pull out the feathers on her breast or underside. This allows for skin-to-shell contact with the eggs and helps to keep them warm. The feathers also double as bedding in the nest. In addition to sitting on the eggs for warmth, a hen will move them with her feet.

This rotation ensures that the embryos develop into healthy chicks without sticking to the side of the egg. Sitting on the nest is an instinctive behavior. There is no way to encourage broodiness in a hen and not every hen will go broody. For the 21 days required to hatch a clutch of eggs successfully, a broody hen will spend very little time away from the nest. At most, she will rise from the nest to eat, drink and relieve herself once a day.

Broody hens eat significantly less than usual and will lose weight during this time. Broody hens will tend to be very defensive and protective of their nests. They may fluff out their feathers to look more intimidating and might peck at you if you come close to inspect the eggs.

Not every egg a chicken sits on will hatch into a chick. Some eggs may be infertile. Others may fail to develop or hatch due to problems with the embryo or environmental factors. Some fertilized eggs fail to grow, and some embryos start to develop before stopping.

Once the embryo has died, the egg will begin to rot. They have had eye contact all along. Daisy Mae is a great mama. Thanks for all your great information. No Roo. I did not do this as I was afraid the new chicks would get stepped on.

Blackie has big feet with lots of feathers. She is 5 mos old. Thanks again for your wonderful information. Buff Orpingtons are a breed known for their broodiness. The photo above is a Buff Orpington mama hen with several of her chicks.

She will not only hatch all her chicks, but she will also care for them through cold nights, meaning there will be no need for her owner to fuss with a heat lamp. The chicks shown above are a mix of Speckled Sussex and Buff Orpingtons. I have five hens and a rooster. Four hens have laid eggs totalling to 44 so far. One went broody yesterday. I normally collect the eggs daily and keep them safe. Yesterday i forgot to collect an egg and today i checked she was in her nest box with six eggs and she was all riled up just checking her.

The other hens also use her nest to lay their eggs. So i moved her to a seperate cage with straw bedding. The issue is with the change she didnt sit on the eggs until i checked this late evening and one of the six eggs was broken. In the meanwhile she ran out. I gently put her back in that seperate cage and then she sat on the eggs at once. Im worried that she may abandon. Also i have the older eggs. The oldest dating the 1st of march. Can i still use those for hatching? Are those still viable?

Thank you in advance. I have had my bantam eggs hatch as late as 25 or 26 days but on average they take 21 to 23 days i think everyone should be aware that the 21 days suggested are for perfect conditions.

They may hatch in 19 days in an incubator or even with an older more experienced hen with youngsters it can be a bit more hit and miss. I am allowing my broody Buff Orp. To sit on her 1st ever round of new chicks. I have a Rhode Island Red rooster. My Buff is sitting on eggs from each hen. When the chicks come, will they be the same breed characteristics from the hens? Or mixed with RI rooster? They will be a mix of breeds. Whatever hen laid the egg and the rooster that mated with her.

The hen that sits on the eggs is only the incubator. I have a broody sitting on 5 eggs but one of the eggs is day 16 and the other 4 are day If the first egg hatches 3 days earlier than the others will the mother neglect the remaining 4 eggs?

Should I take one egg out so they all the eggs hatch on the same day? I do know that the chicks can hatch on multiple days. There is no need to separate them from the nest.

The mom will still care for them as the others hatch. I just had a chick hatch yesterday morning and two more today. Good luck!! I forgot to mention that the chicken born yesterday fell out of the nest and a couple of the other hens started pecking at her. Luckily we saw it happening and were able to separate the baby from the flock. She is recovering well in a brooder box we have set up. So if your hen is with others, keep an eye on them!

This is my first time using my broody Cochin hen for hatching chicks, so wish me luck! Often the odd one slips out and cools off. Should I pull that egg and check for life? Or just tuck it back under.

Any advice would be muchly appreciated! I really enjoyed this read, so thank you. I have a light Sussex who was constantly going broody, and i constantly had to try and break her as i have no rooster, however, because of the pandora this year, and the need to replace some hens with none available…I have given her some Fertile eggs.

She is extremely dedicated so i am physically having to remove her from her nest to eat, drink and poop. She does this and goes straight back on. I have candled her eggs and think 6 out of the 9 i gave her are fertile so watch this space! Your email address will not be published. Skip to content Search. Introduction to Broody Chickens Certain breeds have a tendency towards broodiness — Cochins, Orpingtons, Silkies and Australorps come to mind, but there are several others.

Is She Broody? Keeping Track of Broody Hens Once she is broody you will need to keep track of her. What Happens During Her Broodiness? If it is later in the year, a hen may go into the molt early and replace all of those worn out feathers What Happens After The Eggs Have Hatched? Summary Would I do anything different next time? No one said chickens were smart. She is also an easy target for predators if the coop isn't secure. When the chicks hatch, it's important to make sure they won't fall out of the nesting box.

If you do move her, make sure she still has room to get up and stretch. Put food and water in the cage for her. You'll know it when you smell it! Good luck! It is large coop with 20 nesting box's and a large roost and floor plan to exercise, they are locked in at night and have a very large fenced in area with netting over.

Lost 7 to wessels, 1 year ago, but have corrected that problem. Judy Crowing Premium Feather Member. Feb 5, 34, South Georgia. It is usually recommended to separate a broody but I usually don't. Or if I separate her while she is setting, I turn them all loose in the coop a day or two after hatch. While she's setting, it prevents others from bothering her and climbing in her nest to lay which can result in jostled or broken eggs.

It also prevents her from stealing others' eggs to add to her clutch. She's pretty much in a trance so it's not going to bother her much. The down side is, unless you have a small coop or pen where she can walk around, she really isn't going to get much exercise at all. They lose weight and muscle mass as it is. They should get up once or twice a day and just be a chicken for 10 or 20 minutes. All mine have done a good job of keeping the rest of the flock away from the chicks, so when she stopped mothering them usually around 4 weeks the chicks were already accepted as being part of the group, so no integration issues.

They hang around together, by themselves, til full grown, but no vicious attacks on them. Roosters sometimes help the mama raise the chicks; I've never seen one attack them. Now I've only done this 5 or 6 times so I'm no expert. I didnt read the article posted above, but as far as moving the hen and chicks goes, I think it depends on your flock, and your hens place in that flock. There are a lot of variables, and for safety's sake, I move the hen and chicks. Sadly, I have had super hens leave thier nest to protect a single chick that fell to the floor, causing the remaining eggs to die.

I have had hens picked at till bloody by other hens who can hear and want the chicks, or chicks taken out from under a hen. And I have had hens that get so protective they drive everyone else out of the coop completely!

They are peculiar creatures, and as variable as we are, so to make it easier on everyone, I put the hen and her chicks in a 'hatching hutch'. These are modified Rabbit hutches that give them a quiet dark back room, and a sunny open area for mom to teach and feed the babies.

When everyone is days old, I open the hutch, give them a ramp, and let em go! Tho sometimes you have to help the chicks figure out the ramp for a day or two. Later, when she is ready to 'wean' them, she goes back to the coop, and the smart chicks go with her, the others go into the hutch, and I have to move them for a couple nights till they get the idea.