There’s never been a time in my 10 years or so of having chickens that I’ve had such weird hens. First, I’m getting 3 or 4 eggs per day. I was getting 18 – 20 eggs per day from these same hens. They aren’t old enough to stop laying and I know this summer has been miserable for them but 3 or 4 eggs per day. That means I’m spending about $17 for chicken feed for a week and getting about two dozen eggs per week.
We have 9 laying boxes. Sometimes they’re all full of broody hens and sometimes there’s a broody hen or two off in the tall grass sitting on nests but they always give up before the 21 days is up and the eggs hatch. Maybe snakes scare them or critters scare them but . . they’re just not very good at laying eggs or hatching babies. Every day I walk out there and gather a couple of eggs and think . . gumbo . . dumplings . . chicken & dressing!
I go out several times a day to get eggs when it’s so hot. Saturday morning I went out and my most reliable mama hen was sitting on an egg. I told Vince that she’s my best chance at hatching babies so I’m going to give her six eggs to sit on. As the day progressed, I added another egg and she now had two eggs. I marked them so I’d know which ones not to bring in. I went back out about noon and she wasn’t on the nest. I figured she went to get water or so her “bizness” but when I went back about 4, another hen was on the nest and she is not a good mother. I figured I’d just take the two eggs . . they were still good.
Went back out yesterday morning and the good mama was in the nest again, sitting on golf balls. I got three eggs during the day and gave her all three of them. She stayed on the nest most of the day. Went out to close them up last night and she was off the nest and in a different coop. I again brought the eggs in.
So far today, she’s sitting on golf balls. If she sits on those all night, I’ll give her eggs again tomorrow.
Who knew it would be so much trouble to get baby chicks?
dezertsuz says
So you can still eat them if they’ve been sat on for a while?
Shirley Hobbs says
I feel your pain. One of my girls went broody earlier this summer. She eventually gathered 16 eggs under her. In the middle of her broody one of the other girls also decided to go broody. They were both sitting in the same nesting box, even though I have FIVE nesting boxes. They would sit on top of each other. The eggs gradually started disappearing, one by one. Girl 1 stopped being broody, or maybe she was tired of fighting over the nesting box. We were down to 2 eggs at this point, so I took them and tossed them. No babies. I was so looking forward to seeing what would hatch as I had 5 hens of different breeds and the rooster is a sixth breed. Maybe someone will go broody again now that the weather is cooling. One can only hope.