Allowing her to sit on eggs that will never hatch is not fair to her and not in anyone's best interest. At the same time your hen is brooding, she will not lay any eggs, and she may inspire other hens to go broody as well. Broodiness begets broodiness. Before you know it, your whole flock could be on strike!
The incubation period for chicken eggs is 20 to 21 days, and increases up to 30 days for other poultry. After sitting for some days, a broody hen can be given some newly hatched chicks and, if they are accepted, the original eggs can be removed and replaced with more chicks.
Care of a Broody Hen
Just let her sit on the eggs in the nest box, but know that it's best to move her and the clutch of eggs to a larger nest box that measures at least one-foot square. A nest box of this size will allow the hen to turn around, move a bit, and set up for the chicks.
Create a separate environment for her using a small portable coop or crate. Removing her from the nesting boxes and eggs could help get her out of the broody mindset. Putting her in a cage with a wire bottom, open to the air, can help cool her underside and disengage her from the broody feeling.
If there are no fertile eggs available or the broody sits on an empty nest, broodiness can continue long beyond three weeks, resulting in negative health consequences for her and problems for other hens. A broody eats, drinks and eliminates waste once or twice a day at most.
How The Chicken Incubates Eggs Naturally. In nature, the female bird selects the nest site and lays a clutch of eggs (usually 8 to 13 eggs), one egg per day. Once she has a clutch of eggs, she begins sitting on the eggs full time, leaving only for food and water.
Some hens go broody. Others don't. Some broody hens give up quickly if her eggs won't hatch, while others will sit for weeks.
A broody hen is a hen that wants its eggs to hatch. She will sit on top of her eggs (and others which she's stolen) all day long in an attempt to hatch them. Clearly, if there is no rooster involved, then the eggs won't be fertile, and she can sit on top of the eggs for the rest of her life, but they still won't hatch!
You'll see blood pumping through the heart of a tiny, developing embryo if you candle a fertile egg on Day 4. If the embryo dies at this point, you may still see a faint network of blood vessels inside the egg's contents. An embryo dying at this point will show a large, black eye.
Feed and water them regularly
This seems painfully obvious - but it is really important to ensure that your broody hen is consuming food at least once a day. Broody hens consume 80% less feed than when in their normal state, which means they are at risk of malnutrition.
Prior to incubation, a fertilized egg can be stored for a maximum of 7 days in a cool room kept at a steady 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit (not in the refrigerator – it's too cold!).
If you cannot divide your coop, a broody hen can stay with the rest of the flock. However, you do need the ability to feed the babies a separate starter/grower feed so preparing a separate location for a few weeks is a good idea, if you have the resources.
Vent: An actively laying hen's vent should be large, pale and moist – you may notice it pulsing too. This lady is still laying eggs for you. If the vent is small and pinkish then she has not started laying yet. With hens that have stopped laying the vent is yellow and dry.
When an egg is unfertilized, the germinal spot is small because it contains genetic material from only the hen. This is referred to as a blastodisc. With fertilized eggs, the germinal spot is larger and has a bullseye appearance with a clear, white edge.
Provide Food and Water to Your Broody Hen
Your hen will likely only leave the nest once or twice a day to eat and drink. Providing food and water right by the nest will encourage her to actually get up and eat.
If dirty eggs must be used for hatching, it is recommended that they be incubated in an incubator separate from the clean eggs. This will prevent contamination of clean eggs and chicks if the dirty eggs explode and during hatching.
A cracked egg can still be hatched if the internal anatomy isn't damaged. You can still hatch a cracked egg if the internal anatomy of the egg isn't damaged. You'll also need to perform some immediate bandaging and dressing.
If humidity during incubation is kept too high, adequate water evaporation from the egg is prevented. The chick can drown in the water remaining in the shell at hatching. A dried coating around the chick's nostrils and beak indicates that drowning was likely.
Do all chicken eggs take 21 days to hatch? No. Usually, if temperature and humidity levels have been ideal, the hatchling will start to break through the shell 21 days after the eggs were first set. Bantams will take less long – on average, 18 days.
Once the nest is “inactive”—that is, there are no viable eggs or live young—it is safe, and legal, to clean out a nest. We recommend disposing of those eggs, deceased young, and/or nest materials (e.g., if you're cleaning out a nest box) in a place where they won't attract insects to the nest area.
A broody hen does not have a 3 week timer that alerts her to leave the nest after 3 weeks. Broodiness can continue long beyond three weeks, resulting in negative health consequences to the hen and problems for the flock. A hen cannot be induced to brood, nor will taking eggs away from her discourage brooding.
If she's already been sitting on eggs, you can try moving them with her but I tend to have a little better success rate when I notice I have a broody hen, move her and get her settled in a chick-friendly spot, and then give her eggs to sit on. But you WILL need eggs on the destination nest to keep her interested.
At most, a hen (female chicken) can lay one egg a day – but a hen will not always lay an egg every day. It takes 24 to 26 hours for a hen to produce an egg. See How a hen makes an egg? The number of hours of light in a day stimulates a hen to start producing eggs.