How long does a hen stay broody for?

[3boysandagirl]

Our fertilised egg is due to hatch tomorrow. I was thinking of putting some more possibly fertilised eggs under our broody hen. Is this a good time or will she interest once the chick hopefully hatches and starts moving about.

Or will she just need a break?

If she is the one looking after the chick then i would say not. the reason they stop laying once they have hatched is because the chick takes up ever more space underneath them. you would find the eggs being moved to one side to accomodate the chick. best to wait until chick is about 6 - 8 weeks and is no longer going under mum

Thanks for your reply. We are going to borrow a friends broody hen and hopefully she'll sit on them. If not we'll incubate them!

mummymeister is correct - once the chick's hatched and 24-48 hours have passed, she'll be wanting to take it outside and feed it.

If you want continuous incubation, then I'm afraid you'll have to get an incubator!

2 chicks hatched early hours of the morning. All seems well so have left them to it. We have 4 eggs in the incubator, going to attempt to hatch them (if they're fertile) ourselves.