4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[catherinej]

Well, I set my broody hen up with 4 fertilised eggs, a large crate, food and drink etc. a week ago and all was going fine until yesterday. I went on a school trip with my little girl for the day and when I got home Dot was off her nest and out of the crate. I am guessing that she got up for a poo and couldn't get back into the crate to her eggs. There was poo all over the floor - maybe from panic - and the eggs i'd say were about room temperature to touch (which was quite warm yesterday but probably not warm enough). I have no idea how long she'd been out, but i put her straight back on the nest and she settled back onto the eggs where she has been all night. Is there any way to tell whether the chicks would have survived this? Not sure what to do next! Thanks

[The Dogmother]

There's very little you can do at this stage TBH, just let her sit.

 

She may discard any non-valid eggs, or you would be able to tell by candling them whether they have grown or not.

[Griffin]

This hot weather will have helped keep the eggs warm. Try not to worry too much and then candle in a few days. You should see the spider network of veins clearly by day 8 or 9.

[teri]

sorry to hear about that a simular thing happened with my broody and unfortunatley i lost all of the eggs. she continued to sit on all of them and was there for almost four weeks in total but to no avail however she remained VERY broody so i got some more eggs only two days after removing the originals and we now have seven very healthy chicks i hope every thing is ok with your eggs. it was very chilly when we lost ours so you may have more hope keep us informed and good luck

[catherinej]

Thanks everyone. I am going to try and candle them on saturday as that should be day 10 so fingers crossed. It's just so upsetting for the kids, especially as we had one chook put to sleep only 2 weeks ago! If they havn't survived, i might just buy some day old chicks to put under her. On the bright side, my hubby has just ordered a cube!

[atsw]

If they havn't survived, i might just buy some day old chicks to put under her.

We had to do that last weekend, as our eggs all failed. It's not a cheap solution, but very satisfying for both the broody chook and owners.

 

If you go down that route it's very important you introduce the chicks very late at night under cover of darkness. The broody will be sleepy and therefore less likely to reject the chicks. Slip one chick in and take one egg out, repeating for each chick. Good luck.

 

Andrew

[mrsallen08]

Sorry to hear about that but as other have said hopefully with the warm weather you may still have a hatch.

[AJuff]

How long can a broody come off the eggs without the risk of loosing any?

[atsw]

In normal weather around 30 minutes is fine.

 

Andrew

[Lewis]

How long can a broody come off the eggs without the risk of loosing any?

I'm sure I heard when incubating eggs have known to last 6 hours.

I know my incubator turned off for a few hours when we were out but the chicks still hatched

[feemcg]

Some large hatcheries have a deliberate cooling period of the eggs for 30 mins - 1 hour. After reading this a few years ago I've never worried about taking all the eggs out of the incubator at once and letting them cool a bit while candling.