Two broody hens in one box

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OklaSteve

OklaSteve

Chirping
May 16, 2022
24
42
79
Northeast Oklahoma
So I have 14 hens of various breeds. Two of my hens have gone broody. I wasn’t going to raise any chicks this year but a neighbor’s rooster got into my coop for about a week so I figured I would give hatching a few eggs a try. I have 5 nesting boxes but two of the girls have decided to use the same box. There are 17 eggs in the box. Should I attempt to move one of the hens or should I leave them alone? If I move one of them I will just be guessing at which eggs to move with which hen. If it matters the boxes are 12”x15”.
 
OklaSteve said:
So I have 14 hens of various breeds. Two of my hens have gone broody. I wasn’t going to raise any chicks this year but a neighbor’s rooster got into my coop for about a week so I figured I would give hatching a few eggs a try. I have 5 nesting boxes but two of the girls have decided to use the same box. There are 17 eggs in the box. Should I attempt to move one of the hens or should I leave them alone? If I move one of them I will just be guessing at which eggs to move with which hen. If it matters the boxes are 12”x15”.
Click to expand...
How long have they been setting?
I would break one broody and make sure the eggs under the remaining one are marked and any new eggs removed daily.
There are a lot of different ways to manage a broody.
I move them to a fenced off area of the coop to make things simpler in the long run.
 
OklaSteve said:
two of the girls have decided to use the same box.
Click to expand...
Sometimes two broody hens work together to hatch and raise chicks. You get several stories on here about how cute it is. But sometimes it is not cute. One broody may kill the chicks that hatch under the other. Sometimes they fight over the chicks and chicks can be hurt. One time I had a broody that had just turned broody in a different nest attack a hen to take over the eggs as they started hatching. When she heard the chicks she wanted them. They destroyed half of the hatching eggs, each with a live chick in it. I don't allow two broody hens to share the same space, let alone the same nest. But it works for many people.

OklaSteve said:
There are 17 eggs in the box. Should I attempt to move one of the hens or should I leave them alone? If I move one of them I will just be guessing at which eggs to move with which hen. If it matters the boxes are 12”x15”.
Click to expand...
It sounds like you allowed the eggs to just collect as time went by. The problem with this is that you can have a staggered hatch. The hatch can be spread out over several days. The broody hen has to decide if she is going to take the first ones to hatch off of the nest to get food and water when they get hungry (could be two or three days or could be sooner) and leave the rest to die. Staggered hatches can be very stressful for you and the hen.

New eggs can continue to show up in the nest. Other hens can lay in the nest with them. It's fairly rare but a broody may carry an egg back to their nest from another nest. Not only does this create a staggered hatch but if the number of eggs gets so high the hen cannot cover all of them some can get pushed out from under her, cool off and die, then get pushed back under her while a different one is pushed out, cools off and dies. If that happens you do not often get a good hatch. That is why Aart said to mark the eggs you want her to have and remove any fresh eggs daily. As long as you collect them daily they are still good to use.

How long ago was that rooster in with your flock? Most of the eggs should remain viable for two weeks after the last successful mating. If you are still within that time frame you could throw away all 17 eggs, or however many are under them now, and collect fresh eggs so you can mark them and start all of them at the same time. Yes, it is possible that some eggs will remain viable for three weeks or longer, but after two weeks the chances of an egg remaining viable drops off and you don't know when he mated with any individual hen anyway. It could be more than two weeks.

Another option is to candle the eggs and toss any that have not started developing. Mark the rest and continue, either with both hens or with just one. Or separate the two broody hens and give one the best developed eggs and the other hen the others. Or leave the hens as they are, mark the eggs and remove new ones, and deal with the potential staggered hatch and the risk of the two broodies together.

Any of these could work. Good luck and let us know what you decide.
 
I've had two silkies go broody at the same time and were great together. 17 eggs is alot even for two chickens. Have they been developing very long?
 
Ridgerunner said:
Sometimes two broody hens work together to hatch and raise chicks. You get several stories on here about how cute it is. But sometimes it is not cute. One broody may kill the chicks that hatch under the other. Sometimes they fight over the chicks and chicks can be hurt. One time I had a broody that had just turned broody in a different nest attack a hen to take over the eggs as they started hatching. When she heard the chicks she wanted them. They destroyed half of the hatching eggs, each with a live chick in it. I don't allow two broody hens to share the same space, let alone the same nest. But it works for many people.


It sounds like you allowed the eggs to just collect as time went by. The problem with this is that you can have a staggered hatch. The hatch can be spread out over several days. The broody hen has to decide if she is going to take the first ones to hatch off of the nest to get food and water when they get hungry (could be two or three days or could be sooner) and leave the rest to die. Staggered hatches can be very stressful for you and the hen.

New eggs can continue to show up in the nest. Other hens can lay in the nest with them. It's fairly rare but a broody may carry an egg back to their nest from another nest. Not only does this create a staggered hatch but if the number of eggs gets so high the hen cannot cover all of them some can get pushed out from under her, cool off and die, then get pushed back under her while a different one is pushed out, cools off and dies. If that happens you do not often get a good hatch. That is why Aart said to mark the eggs you want her to have and remove any fresh eggs daily. As long as you collect them daily they are still good to use.

How long ago was that rooster in with your flock? Most of the eggs should remain viable for two weeks after the last successful mating. If you are still within that time frame you could throw away all 17 eggs, or however many are under them now, and collect fresh eggs so you can mark them and start all of them at the same time. Yes, it is possible that some eggs will remain viable for three weeks or longer, but after two weeks the chances of an egg remaining viable drops off and you don't know when he mated with any individual hen anyway. It could be more than two weeks.

Another option is to candle the eggs and toss any that have not started developing. Mark the rest and continue, either with both hens or with just one. Or separate the two broody hens and give one the best developed eggs and the other hen the others. Or leave the hens as they are, mark the eggs and remove new ones, and deal with the potential staggered hatch and the risk of the two broodies together.

Any of these could work. Good luck and let us know what you decide.
Click to expand...
This was some fantastic information, thank you very much for the time it took to write such a response.

After lots of thought I have decided to remove all of the eggs and try to break the broodiness in both of them.

Now I just need to do some research on how to stop the broodiness.

I have a question about adding two young cockerels to a flock of 14 hens but I will make a new post for it.

Thanks again.
 
I get double broody hens all the time. Typically they share the babies. If eggs are left over from the initial hatching another hen usually goes broody and sits on the previous leftover eggs. I've had a wave of three mothers so far as the longest chain I've personally witnessed on my land

My advise is: do not mess with nature. Chickens know best what they are doing
 

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