broody chicken

[Daniela]

Hi, my broody chicken sat on her eggs all night, but today she was less enthusiastic and the eggs got cold. She's now decided to sit again.
Will the eggs still be OK or do I have to replace them?
Thanks a lot.

[petal]

Well, only one way to find out. candle them in a few days time to see if they are still developing.

[Nicos]

A similar thing has happened with me a couple of times.
Each time there has been problems with the chicks- some sort of deformity with about half of them.
May have been a coincidence but my gut feeling is that it's because they got cold.
Problems such as a hernia, splayed legs,deformed beak, heart failure and chicks not strong enough to break the shell and die fully developed. A much higher percentage than a straight forward sitting.

How long has she been brooding them?

[RichmondHens]

If she's only a day or two into incubation it may not harm them, they will hatch a little later than you planned that's all. If however she is half way through then you might have problems. Had she been sitting long before you put fertile eggs under her? Was she really broody or just a lazy nestbox hog?

[Daniela]

Last night was the first time she sat on them - all night.
Today she was off in the morning, back on in the afternoon and off again in the evening because there was too much going on in the garden.
So she really only started last night.

[RichmondHens]

Sounds like she's not really fully broody then. It's advisable to settle them on some fake or infertile eggs just to see if they're serious before putting hatching eggs under. Sorry to say you might have jumped the gun a little with this hen. Give her a bit more time, she may surprise you yet, but for the future I would recommend getting her into a separate broody coop a good three or four days prior to when you want to start incubating the intended eggs and site the coop in a quiet shady place well away from any garden activity.

[Daniela]

sounds like she's not really fully broody then. It's advisable to settle them on some fake or infertile eggs just to see if they're serious before putting hatching eggs under. Sorry to say you might have jumped the gun a little with this hen. Give her a bit more time, she may surprise you yet, but for the future i would recommend getting her into a separate broody coop a good three or four days prior to when you want to start incubating the intended eggs and site the coop in a quiet shady place well away from any garden activity.

thanks a lot -d

[SMS6]

Pity you're not near me - my broody hen is determined to sit tight even when we remove all the eggs from under her. She doesn't come out to eat or drink unless we make her do so and we have to shut the pop hole to stop her going back in. If we block off the nest box she just settles in a corner of the coop and broods there.