??? About brooding hen

[Alan]

One of our hens has been brooding on some eggs for a little over two weeks, we do have a rooster. I know it takes 21 days for the chicks to hatch, my questions are:

If the eggs are not fertile will the hen stop brooding on her own?

Does the hen ever get off the nest to eat or drink? I have not seen her off the nest but I spend very little time in the hen house.

Thanks,
Alan

 

[dun]

She'll get off to eat and drink. By the time she gets tired of them not hatching you can probably smell them.

 

[3waycross]

Have you tried candling them.

Hold on in your hand with a strong flashlight under it. It helps to be in a fairly dark room when you do this. You will see pretty quick if you have good eggs. Most folks don't let hens brood this time of year if it's real hot. It's awful hard on the hen.

 

[Lammie]

No, she won't get up off them, depending on strong a brooder she's bred to be. I have seen hens loose feathers and near die sitting on eggs that weren't gonna hatch. Take them away, she would sit on someone else's nest. Take her away from that, and she'd find something to sit on. In fact, I had a silkie that sat on a golf ball for several days before I just threw it out.

Dad told me that if you took a hen like that and put her in a tow sack or old pillow case, have it on the clothes line and wet it down, it'd help.

Just really made my hen mad.

 

[JHH]

No, she won't get up off them, depending on strong a brooder she's bred to be. I have seen hens loose feathers and near die sitting on eggs that weren't gonna hatch. Take them away, she would sit on someone else's nest. Take her away from that, and she'd find something to sit on. In fact, I had a silkie that sat on a golf ball for several days before I just threw it out.

Dad told me that if you took a hen like that and put her in a tow sack or old pillow case, have it on the clothes line and wet it down, it'd help.

Just really made my hen mad.

Silkies go broody pretty quick. We use them to sit on other eggs and hatch them.

Alan she will continue to sit. You need to candle the eggs or throw them out. Sounds like she is probably a very good hen.

 

[angie1]

She is fine. Those eggs should hatch if you have a rooster. If she has been doing this for more than 2 weeks, then she has been getting up to eat and drink. Hens typically will not get up off the nest if you are out there, but she is eating and drinking. I let my hens start sitting their eggs the day after Easter until Labor Day ~ all through the heat of the summer. Don't take them away from her. Candling is a good idea if you feel like messing with it, but very soon (if not already), the chicks are too big in the eggs to see difinitive movement ~ I try to candle by 12 days in.

One big mistake I made was getting ants in my pants and not waiting long enough, cracked an egg open to see if the egg had a chick in it. It did. That didn't end well, and was the last time I butted in.

I would suggest you leave her until you KNOW, without a doubt, that she has been on for 21 days. Tossing the eggs now will kill any chicks inside. One thing I will suggest is when the chicks have had plenty of time to hatch (say she has 7 eggs and 5 have hatched but not the last 2), throw those last 2 eggs ~ they may not be good, but she might not get off the nest to take care of her chicks until they hatch (which they won't). But give them time. Also, listen when the chicks start to hatch, put the egg close to your ear, you can hear the chicks peeping and sctraching in the egg ~ this sometimes happens at day 19, but usually at day 21. I have never had eggs blow up in the nest because I left the hen sitting on them too long, but I do remove bad eggs very very carefully.

Careful what you water them in when they do hatch, chicks will jump into deeper waterers and drown.

Enjoy them! Baby chicks with mom is one of my favorite things.

 

[upfrombottom]

Just really made my hen mad.

Ever hear the saying:" Mad as a wet hen."

 

[Lammie]

We had Japanese banties that would sit on one clutch, group style. Like four or five of them on one clutch. As the eggs would hatch, they would peel off and take care of the chicks. That's what I call teamwork.

Biggest threat to my eggs were fire ants. They would get into an egg when it first started to hatch and just eat the chick from the inside. It was pretty terrible looking.

I don't have chickens at the moment. I kinda lost my enthusiasm for them. That and I got tired of them getting in the garden. I may get some more next spring but I'll keep them penned.

 

[john250]

I may get some more next spring but I'll keep them penned.

You need a 'Taj Mahal' chicken coop. I think this is the new status symbol; just as it once took "owning cattle" to confer instant respect in a small town it now takes "owning chickens" in the elite neighborhoods of New York and Northern CA and south Dallas to confer status on a person.
"She keeps chickens" is like "he has 10,000 head out on the range". You know you're dealing with someone of substance, whatever their credit score.
Of course, keeping chickens means you have money to burn. So I can see how people might respect a person who can pay the feed bill.
Forget it. Join chickens anonymous. Take Yoga or pilates classes. Meditate. Buy a pool instead. :D
Just say no to chickens. :lol:

 

[MistyMorning]

I may get some more next spring but I'll keep them penned.

You need a 'Taj Mahal' chicken coop. I think this is the new status symbol; just as it once took "owning cattle" to confer instant respect in a small town it now takes "owning chickens" in the elite neighborhoods of New York and Northern CA and south Dallas to confer status on a person.
"She keeps chickens" is like "he has 10,000 head out on the range". You know you're dealing with someone of substance, whatever their credit score.
Of course, keeping chickens means you have money to burn. So I can see how people might respect a person who can pay the feed bill.
Forget it. Join chickens anonymous. Take Yoga or pilates classes. Meditate. Buy a pool instead. :D
Just say no to chickens. :lol:

Lammie, DO NOT get chickens again, listen to John here. I'm looking at 25 cornish rock/X out the window as I type, they are vile, icky AND I get to butcher them in about 4-5 weeks, may be a tad warm around here, the flies may be having yet another hatch, don't do it!

 

[sheilad916]

Misty- I had some of the cornish rock X last year. They got so BIG....they waddled when they tried to walk! I almost felt sorry for them... i didn't get anymore of those this year.

I have had a few hens hatch out a nest this year. The last one while my hen was sitting, some of the other hens kept trying to get in the nest box with her (there are 10 other nest boxes in my coop). One time i went out there and there were 3 hens piled on the nest!!! Also when the chicks started to hatch, one of the other hens would grab the hatching egg and run around with it....and eventually would eat the poor thing..... :cry2:

I have decided that any nests i have in the future i will cover with a fly pen.

Good luck with your chicks!!

 

[F350]

don't worry about the hen, just make sure she has access to feed and water. if you need to break her from setting, take her away from the nest, give her 1/2 a bayer aspirin and pen her alone for 3 days. return to general population.

 

[JHH]

don't worry about the hen, just make sure she has access to feed and water. if you need to break her from setting, take her away from the nest, give her 1/2 a bayer aspirin and pen her alone for 3 days. return to general population.

What is the aspirin for?

 

[F350]

When hens are setting, they have a fever of sorts. the aspirin is to reduce the fever.

if you don't do this, and just remove them from the nest, most will continue to set on bare ground for quite a while. the aspirin works for me.

 

[angie1]

When hens are setting, they have a fever of sorts. the aspirin is to reduce the fever.

if you don't do this, and just remove them from the nest, most will continue to set on bare ground for quite a while. the aspirin works for me.

This is interesting! I have raised chickens for a long time, and have read a lot from different sources on, specifically, hatching ~ both naturally and in an incubator, in an effort to increase hatch rates. I depended on the money from selling chicks. I would be interested in reading more about this. Can you refer me to a site?

 

[ga.prime]

When hens are setting, they have a fever of sorts. the aspirin is to reduce the fever.

if you don't do this, and just remove them from the nest, most will continue to set on bare ground for quite a while. the aspirin works for me.

This is interesting! I have raised chickens for a long time, and have read a lot from different sources on, specifically, hatching ~ both naturally and in an incubator, in an effort to increase hatch rates. I depended on the money from selling chicks. I would be interested in reading more about this. Can you refer me to a site?

A side benefit to this regimen is the hens show a significant decrease in deaths due to heart attack and stroke.

 

[john250]

When hens are setting, they have a fever of sorts. the aspirin is to reduce the fever.

if you don't do this, and just remove them from the nest, most will continue to set on bare ground for quite a while. the aspirin works for me.

This is interesting! I have raised chickens for a long time, and have read a lot from different sources on, specifically, hatching ~ both naturally and in an incubator, in an effort to increase hatch rates. I depended on the money from selling chicks. I would be interested in reading more about this. Can you refer me to a site?

A side benefit to this regimen is the hens show a significant decrease in deaths due to heart attack and stroke.

Is not half an aspirin a big dose for a chicken? I'm 170 lbs and I take one or two when I have a headache. I guess aspirin overdoses are pretty rare.

 

[F350]

Angie, not sure of any website that would have info on using aspirin to help break a hen from setting so she can get productive sooner.

i'll ck some old magazines at home to see if i can find anything.

i too have raised them nearly all my life.

 

[angie1]

Any news on the chicken Alan? By now she should have hatched out.

 

[Alan]

Any news on the chicken Alan? By now she should have hatched out.

We are traveling in Canada right now, oh what a strange foreign country this is! :D . We left on saturday and had no chicks yet, so if we have no chicks by the time we get back on friday or saturday I'll break one egg to see (I'm sure it's way to late to candle). It won't be good either way, killed a chick or really stinks, but if there is a chick I'll let her set for a few more days.

BTW, we're driving, took a ferry from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC. Were spending a few days here.... great Halibut and chips! tomorrow we'll take another ferry to Vancouver, BC spend a day or so and then a day or so in Seattle and on home to tons of work.

Alan