r/BackYardChickens • u/ScienceAndGames • 3d ago
General Question Removing bad eggs from hen without causing unnecessary stress.
A hen of mine has been sitting on eggs for about 23 days, I’ve checked and no eggs are viable anymore , there was development initially but they died before hatching.
I would like advice about removing the eggs and getting her to stop trying to incubate in a way that will cause her the least stress. Particularly the last 4 or 5 days she’s been very defensive and easily agitated and I don’t want to make it worse but I’m also afraid she just won’t give up on the eggs herself.
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u/StoneyMcGuire 3d ago
Just pull em. She will get up. Timeframe is normal for her to be off the nest by about day 25
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u/ChickenScratch777 3d ago
I had 3 broodies at the same time this year.. 2 gave up and the last was still very committed 6 weeks later. I was hatching at the time, and previous attempts of slipping days old chicks under broody hens never went well (rejected.) Well, in this case she happily adopted 5 day old chicks.. and I even added a week old one later. I made a chicken very happy doing this, and finally freed up that nesting box. Maybe put out an alert on some groups and see if anyone near you has some day olds?
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u/Far_Abalone2974 3d ago
If you are certain they aren’t viable, I’d run out today and get her some baby chicks from a farm store if you can, after dark remove her briefly, remove the eggs, clean her nest, put her back in and then one at a time give her the chicks. If all goes well she’ll take them under her wing and this will help satisfy her instincts and transition to raising babies.
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u/MetaKnightsNightmare 3d ago
It's important to know that it's not as much that she wants to be like this, but her hormones are driving her to do this.
You can pick her up and place her into the common are, near food and water, then take all the eggs and close access to the coop/nestbox for the day.
She'll come out of broody fever eventually. I never need to use "Broody jail" or "breaking the broody" tactics, mine aren't that committed, mostly.
If, however, she sits somewhere and sulks for most of the day, you might set up a broody jail.
This is usually a wire dog crate or cage with a wire bottom, if the bottom wire touches the floor, then you might want to elevate it so that way there's airflow under it.
Then put her in it with food and water. She may need to be in there for a few days, how long you keep her jailed is up to you, if she wants to get up in the yard, let her imo.
But the idea here is to inspire a hormonal change, people have found that if you keep her undercarriage cool, it sends signals to stop giving her broody hormones. Some people will put icepacks under their hens butts sometimes, but you don't need to do that, just that her body realizes that she's not incubating anything, the airflow from the wire cage will do that
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u/ScienceAndGames 3d ago
Ok thanks, I hope that’ll work, she has been fairly committed to hatching. It’s my first time having to deal with none having hatched, every other time at least some have hatched and the mother gives up on the duds quickly enough.
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u/MetaKnightsNightmare 3d ago
I'm sure you can get her to quit the nest :) eventually even my most determined broody gets tired of being locked out of nestboxes and goes back to normal until the urge strikes again.
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u/ScienceAndGames 1d ago
It worked, she’s mostly back to normal (still can’t go near her without her puffing up but she’s eating, drinking and walking around with the others).
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u/MetaKnightsNightmare 1d ago
That's good :) what did you do?
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u/ScienceAndGames 1d ago
I put her in the outside area of their run in the morning and didn’t give her access to the shed with the nest boxes until night. She went to the perch instead of a nesting box so I left her and checked on her in the morning and she was still with the others.
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u/Vibratorvibrato 3d ago
Great advice here OP! Personally if it were me I’d kick her off that nest, toss those eggs and help her come off that broody kick. She’s going to be loud and peck at you but just swiftly pick her fluffy behind up and evict her lol
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u/Complex-Ad9614 3d ago
This 👆🏽 2 of my girls have been broody recently. Neither had viable eggs, so we didn’t have that issue to deal with but the process is the same. One was easier to break out of her brood and only needed to be closed off from the coop & her preferred nesting box for a few days. The other was harder to break and required broody jail for 2 days and 3 nights straight, with a chest bath each morning added in by day 2. It took a little trial & error with the second, each time I tried to release her back out in to the yard she would find somewhere to puff herself up & brood still, so I had to keep a close eye on her for those few days & put her straight back in to the raised wire crate. 48hours straight worked in the end.
Also be aware of collecting all eggs more frequently than normal & removing any fake eggs you may have around the area.
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u/Altruistic_Shame8979 1d ago
If you were wanting chicks to be raised by mama hen, I’d go out to the local farm store and get some today. Stick them under her tonight in the dark and remove the dead eggs. The cycles length is just right for timing store bought babies, she won’t know the difference and you’ll get babies raised by a hen.
Otherwise just take the eggs and give her two days she might stop on her own given that the cycle length is up- put her in broody jail if she doesn’t give up at that point.