Eggs usually become fertile about four days after the rooster has been introduced to the hens. A maximum of 14 to 16 eggs may be brooded in one nest, but hatchability often declines with more than ten eggs, depending on the size of the hen.
A hen can manage to cover and keep warm approximately 12 eggs proportionate to her size, meaning: if she is a bantam, it is reasonable to expect that she can care for 12 bantam sized eggs, fewer if the eggs are from a larger hen.
Broody hens will find a comfortable place – usually a secure and small space like a nesting box – to lay their clutch. Once a desirable number of eggs (about 6-12) are in the clutch, then the broody hen will begin incubating her eggs by sitting down and staying put!
Most sources recommend setting 6-8 average eggs at a time under an average-sized hen, so she is big enough to keep them properly warm. Adjust the number of eggs you are incubating for the size of the egg and chicken, for example 3-4 standard eggs might be enough for a small Silkie hen.
Chickens will sometimes release two yolks at the same time. This is most common with young hens who are maturing, or a sign that a bird is being overfed. Therefore, a chicken could potentially lay two eggs a day, but no more.
A general rule, unwashed eggs will last around two weeks unrefrigerated and about three months or more in your refrigerator. If you're experiencing an egg boom, it's smart to refrigerate any unwashed fresh eggs you aren't planning to eat immediately.
Poultry farming is not highly labor intensive. The time needed to brood, grow and feed 500 birds or to collect an average of 280 eggs a day at production can be managed easily. It normally takes one to two hours to feed, clean, and collect eggs daily.
Left unattended, a hen will stay broody for around 21 days, which is the time it takes to hatch a clutch of fertile eggs. After 21 days the behavior should stop, but sometimes, a hen will remain broody and it's important to “break,” or stop a broody hen before she harms herself.
Since a broody hen will take up nesting box space, it is often best to remove her from the normal laying nesting boxes in the coop and provide her with a brooding box within her brooding pen.
While a hen is broody and sitting on a nest, she will put all her energy in to sitting on eggs, and neglect herself in the process. She will only leave the nest to eat, drink, and relieve herself once or twice a day.
It usually happens in the spring or early summertime but I've had hens suddenly go broody in September. The most obvious sign of broody hen behavior is she won't get off the nest. Sometimes the first sign is that you can't find her at all, not all hens go broody in the nest boxes, some prefer to hide their nests.
Remove the Eggs
For most chickens, removing the eggs from under them for a few days will break the broody cycle. They seem to get bored with finding new eggs to sit on every day and decide those little chicks just aren't worth it. Broody Betty will steal eggs for at least a week before she decides to give it up.
Chicken eggs should hatch 21 days after they first start in an incubator. (Remember that your eggs have already been incubated for 14 days before you receive them!) Other bird species have different incubation times. For instance, duck eggs take 28 days to hatch; goose eggs take 30 days.
Managing a Broody Hen
Once she does leave the nest, it'll only be to eat, drink and poop, and then she'll head back to her eggs. 20 minutes max! As for the food she should have available to her, we recommend you provide a high protein Starter Chicken Feed because of her infrequent trips to the feeder.
A brooding hen usually doesn't get off of her eggs for more than an hour or so at a time, and no more than once a day. Sometimes they do not leave the best for days at a time. I would say the answer to your question is 23–24 hours a day.
Allowing a broody hen to be broody when she doesn't have eggs or chicks is not healthy for her. A broody hen will eat less and drink less, causing her to lose weight and become dehydrated.
Most hen keepers remove the eggs from nest boxes daily but the broody hen will continue sitting on an empty nest, exhibiting the same behaviour. The understandable reaction from many worried owners is to seek out fertilized eggs to put under their broody girl.
You can safely eat your fertilized eggs without any worries. It's truly no different than an unfertilized egg. Except that maybe it's a healthier choice because it came from a backyard chicken or an assumption that it is free-range.
Does a rooster fertilize every egg? Not always. If a hen is frequently mating with only one rooster, he will fertilize most of her eggs. However, it is still possible that the occasional non-fertile egg will slip through.
Unless you live in the extreme northern or southern hemisphere, where the winter days can be tremendously short, your chickens will not need light at night. To lay eggs? A chicken needs at least 12 hours of daylight daily.
Egg Budget
I'll estimate based on 200 eggs per hen per year. 200/365 = 0.55 eggs per chicken per day. Rounding this off makes the math a little simpler. I'll just use the figure that 1 hen lays about 1/2 egg a day (or more sensibly, we can expect 1 egg a day for every two hens).
D. Consistent egg production is a sign of happy, healthy hens. Most hens will lay their first egg around 18 weeks of age and then lay an egg almost daily thereafter. In their first year, you can expect up to 250 eggs from high-producing, well-fed backyard chickens.