She did leave the nest to eat and drink, then headed outside to take a few dust baths over the course of the next few weeks, and then would wander around a bit outside, but before long, she was back in the coop making a beeline for her nest. I also kept an eye on her and made sure that I saw her out in the run at least once a day. I put a feeder and waterer in the coop - something I don't normally do - but I wanted to make it easy for her to stay nourished and hydrated.

She might not sit 24/7 the first few days, but that's okay, if she's dedicated to hatching, she will eventually settle in and sit day and night on her nest. She will leave the nest at least once a day to stretch her legs, eat, drink and poop. This is completely normal. Be sure that she has easy access to both feed and water. Over the 21-day incubation period, your broody hen will lose weight and her feathers will dull. (Honestly I think she was quite surprised I didn't keep removing her from her nest as I had in the past!) Annie gladly accepted the new eggs and settled in for the duration. I removed two eggs other hens had laid in Annie's nest and replaced them with the hatching eggs. You want to put all the eggs under your broody hen at the same time so they will all hatch together. While you are assembling your 'clutch', store the fertile eggs pointed end down in a cool location such as a basement or garage and turn them several times a day until you have enough collected.Įggs will generally stay viable for hatching for 7-10 days after being laid if stored properly, but won't start to develop into chicks until they are warmed under the hen for an extended period of time. Once your hen has shown signs of going broody and you have the eggs collected that you plan on hatching (or you have received your fertile hatching eggs if you ordered them online or found them from a local breeder), place the fertile eggs under her and remove any 'dummy eggs' you were letting her sit on in the interim.īe sure to mark the eggs you plan on hatching with a pencil or Sharpie so you know which ones they are.Ī standard-sized hen can comfortably sit on 12-14 eggs.

Hen hatching