It's been a while since the last post on this subject but I am in need of some imformation regarding a chicken hatching duck eggs. I bought twelve fertile mixed breed duck eggs off of ebay hoping to get my broody jersey giant hen to maybe hatch some out. All's fine so far; she's doing her job (it's only been a few days). She's four years old and has never even seen a rooster only her bunk mate she was raised with (a red sex-link). what I need to know first is why is she exibiting this behavior now and to such an extreme that she's been in the nesting box almost constantly for the last month and a half. Is she going to quit on me before any of the six eggs can hatch? The second thing I need to know is how successful am I going to be hatching out any of the remaining six in my homemade incubator when I am having trouble maintaining a constant temperature and humidity at least the first three days (I think I got a handle on it now) but has the damage already been done (too soon to candle). What are my chances as opposed to Isabel's (the hen) in getting any duck babies to hatch? Oh, one more thing about Isabel, she is a free range hen who would only come in the coop to eat and put herself to bed at nightfall and all I had to do is be there to close the door. Now she acts broody and strange when she once was a chatty, personable, happy girl. Was this the wrong tact to take, giving her fertile eggs? The reason I choose duck eggs is I didn't want to take the chance of getting a rooster (don't like 'em).

Yikes! You have one upset little Mama! I would move little mamas nest/eggs to a secluded area so that she can have them back and finish hatching her babies. You should always clean up any eggs that don't hatch-you do not want to have a problem with pests and possible disease from left over eggs. I would also move the other nest/eggs to another secluded spot also so that everybody will be happy-out of site out of mind sorta thing-new mama will take care of her babies and forget about the other nesters'. I have had that happen and have always just moved them and then everybody was happy--however, I don't think I will let that many set on eggs again :) I had one girl that just kept on taking the other girls nest/eggs even though she had her own babies---she would see the eggs and holler yippee,yippee more eggs!! :) So now I will only let one have eggs at a time!!

Kristen, a lot of it is breed dependent. I've had the best luck with a bantam/barred rock cross, but I usually have two or three out of a large flock of comets or rocks who would make successful brooders. A lot of new breeds have had the broody instinct almost bred out of them, but now and again a few are determined enough to make a go of it. Many go broody and then loose interest halfway through it. The important thing is to make sure there aren't a lot of other nest boxes laying around with eggs in it, because my hens don't seem to care where they sit an egg and move off their half gestated eggs and start sitting another clutch and then the eggs go cold too long and are spoilt. That is why I recommend you be pretty consistant to make sure only that marked clutch stays in your boxes for any length of time. Other hens may also try to claim it who don't have sufficient brooding instinct to see the job done.......and they also end up cracking your fertile gestating eggs by climbing in and out of the clutch to lay more. Five or six is a good number to work with. Much more than that and they have trouble covering them to keep them warm. Now is better time to let them rip, because I seldom have much luck with the weather consistantly hot. The clutch becomes like an oven. Once the broody hen starts tending them, if you help her out by keeping stray eggs out........she should become pretty determined. I even had to take water to my sitting hen this spring. She didn't even want to leave her eggs to drink and I could tell by her comb she was dehydrating. It was a neat experience.

Wait until after the hatch if you have to move them. Dion is right, moving them can make them abandon their nest. I've never had luck with doing that, especially with guinea fowl, though you are talking about chickens. As long as you let your hens brood the chicks, they should be okay and keep them warm with their body heat and mama hen's feathers, though it's usually not a great idea to go too far out of the 'spring chicken' season with birds, ma nature knows best. Problem with letting 3 hens brood their own chicks in the same area is, the hens will usually fight with each other about who's going to get the food and water for their babies. I don't know how many eggs they're covering, but if they don't have a huge hatch you may want to select the biggest mother (or best mother) and let them watch all the other chickies alone, no other hens around. I wouldn't worry about the hens being depressed about their chicks being away, chickens aren't like humans, after a few days they won't even bother to worry about it. If your brain was the same size as a chicken, you probably wouldn't worry about too much either, right? ; ) Oh, also don't move the eggs from one hen to another, that can wreak havoc.