Broody hens will exhibit aggressive behaviour - no matter how complacent they were before! If you try and take her eggs, she will puff out her feathers and create an absolute ruckus. A broody hen will stay in her nest virtually all day, only leaving for meals and to go to the bathroom.
5 Simple Tips to “Break” a Broody Hen:
Be sure to remove eggs from under the hen regularly and, if possible, pick her up and set her away from the nesting area while you collect them. Create a separate environment for her using a small portable coop or crate.
Broody hens are slightly different - they have a sudden and strong instinct to sit and hatch eggs. There are ways of discouraging broodiness - see the Broody Chickens section of our Common Chicken Problems page, here - but even a broody hen doesn't get sad about specific eggs being taken away.
Brooding Nests
The rule of thumb for a broody hen is to separate her from the rest of the flock into a Brooding Nest. This is because, despite the fact that they only leave the nest around once a day, you don't want another hen to settle in her nest and force the broody hen to resettle elsewhere.
What is this? 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.
A broody hen is a chicken that has decided to incubate a clutch of eggs by sitting on them all day long. Broodiness is driven by several factors: genetics, hormones, instinct, and lighting conditions.
IMPORTANT: Give your broody hen 10-12 eggs to hatch, and put them under her at the same time so that they will hatch together.
Handling Your Broody Hen
If you have a hen that is broody and not hatching fertile eggs, it is best to disturb her when she is in her nesting box. Lift her off the nest several times a day or move to her a location without access to a nesting box.
Fresh eggs up to five days old can remain at a temperature in the low 60s. If the eggs must wait longer than five days before hatching, place them in the refrigerator in an egg carton.
How long can bird eggs be left unattended? Most bird eggs will remain healthy for up to two weeks before incubation starts.
Keep the nest clean ( I like to add some dried herbs to keep it smelling fresh) Do not however touch or move the eggs. Let her do her thing! It's instilled in hens to be broody and to care for their babies. Let her be the expert that she is and don't meddle much.
The best kept secret in determining an egg's freshness is to see if it sinks in water. To try the egg water test, simply fill a glass or bowl with cold water and submerge the eggs. If the eggs sink to the bottom and lay flat on their side, they're still fresh.
With the longer days, your hens' egg production has picked up, their appetites are good, and the sun is shining, you may notice a few hens going broody. Broodiness is triggered by hormones, daylight, and the availability of eggs to sit on.
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!).
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.
If chick embryos develop to the pipping stage, or at first shell cracking at hatching, they are normally healthy enough to hatch unless some incubator adjustment prevents it from happening. The problem is usually caused by either 1) poor ventilation or 2) improper humidity.
Day 21 is the most common time for hatching, but if your eggs are showing no signs of pipping yet please, do not worry. Chicks can develop at different speeds and incubation times are affected by many variables including temperature variations. I've had chicks hatch as late as day 26. So don't give up too soon!
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.
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.
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.
Some embryos can survive at temperatures below 90°F for up to 18 hours, so do not give up. You should continue to incubate the eggs after the outage; then candle them 4 to 6 days later to see if there has been further development or signs of life.
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.