broody blues

Four broodys. Day 22 no sign of hatching under barred rock.I am not sure why but I noticed that she has her eggs fairly close to the front of her breast and they never feel as warm as they usually do.. The Wyandotte( my most dependable broody) sat on wrong nest let her eggs get cold(purchased ameracuana eggs). only one viable egg with air sac in wrong place. Chicken number three due to hatch in a couple of days. All was going splendidly in the new nursery area with three separated brooding areas connected to a common large run, until I noticed that one mama with chicks was attacking the broody when she got off her nest. After observing for a couple of days I realized she was afraid to go back to her nest because the nasty one was guarding the door. When I chased her away The broody immediately flew onto her nest, but the eggs were a little cool by then.Don't know hats going to happen there. I just put 6 barnie eggs from Islandgal99. , I am going to do some shuffling tonight so that she is in a safe place. That is my sad tale. Not sure what to do if they don't hatch anything. could find some chicks to put under them but I really don't want any more different breeds.

Brooding must always be done where that hen cannot get to any other nest, no one can get to her nest. Total and complete separation the entire time. Any time the broody bird can make contact with another bird, things go wrong. Broody hens are determined, but not smart. They get on the wrong nest, they get scared of other chickens, or if they do manage to hatch without being separate, some other hen may kill her chicks.

Keeping my fingers crossed that maybe there is still hope for some of the eggs! But in future, complete separation is the way to go.

Eggs can take quite a bit of cooling without any harm - hours and hours, especially if it's warmish outside.
But Uno is (as usual) right - 100% separation. It's easy enough to rig up improvised little runs for each hen.

I had good success moving my broody to a private pen by using portable laying boxes. I have some that are milk crates, some Rubbermaid boxes with holes in them. When they go broody, I move them at night without actually disturbing them, just lift out the whole box. They don't budge, because its the same nest. Seems to work good.

And don't give up on the cool eggs, I had a 10 hour power outage last year and my incubator still hatched eggs.

Pet carrying cages work well, too; pick it up and move it out to the run in the morning without disturbing the hen, then shut her up and put her back in the henhouse to keep her safe at night. We often have four hens, each secure in her own cat cage and run. Sometimes the babies get confused though, and slip through the stucco wire run separator - we hatched two clutches of 7 eggs each this spring, and the next day I saw one hen with 12 chicks and the other with only two.

I think you are all right. I have had many hatches in the main coop but I was managing them all the time , making sure they were on their nests at the right time and that other birds hadn't taken over.. It was kinda ridiculous how much time I spent doing that in the beginning. I have too many birds now and am trying to spend less time there and more in my Art studio. Chickens aren't "smart" from a human perspective. They can't think or reason things out but their instincts are amazing. If they had a choice they would choose a hidden away spot where no one could bother them while they brooded. How many times have I heard of a chicken coming home with a dozen chicks after being thought lost. We give them side by side nest boxes in with all the other birds and expect them to be able to 'do it right'. So it makes perfect sense to me to separate them. I have been scared to do that at times in case they abandoned their eggs, but you have given me some ideas to try.

They're hatching! It is day 23 and I just heard cheeping and cracking under the barred rock.She only has 4 eggs. I hope at least wo make it.

My broody hatched one on day 21, 2 on day 22 and one day 23. And there is an egg from her that we had put in the bator that hatched last night so end of day 23 or day 24 depending on how you look at it. Odd. So here's to hoping.

Well that one hatched two. I put the third egg that was cheeping under another broody and it hatched as well. So far three happy families. The next broody was due to hatch two days ago. Of coarse its the one sitting on eggs I purchased. some blue ameraucanas. I am not holding out much hope. I didn't get her moved because the other chicks were taking up space, our son was getting married and I got serious burns from touching giant hogweed.(you know how life gets in the way). She has been off her nest quite a bit in the last couple of days when she should have been sitting really tight and I have had to kick other birds off as well. I think I would like to have an incubator just for situations like this. If I had incubated them and then put them under her when they had pipped, the outcome would have been better . It wouldn't be so bad if they stopped being broody but they just keep on sitting and sitting. Three more sitting on eggs maybe I can give her a few of theirs if they hatch.