primitive trying to get chicken-sitting-on-an-egg record

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=246x11183

Oh my.

hedgehog  (1000+ posts)      Wed Apr-29-09 05:56 PM
Original message
 
Anybody here keep chickens? Does a brooding hen sit on the eggs continuously for 21 days, or does she get up occasionally for some food and water?

Now, I'm no expert on poultry, other than dining on it, but it seems to me an egg that takes 21 days to hatch is a bad egg; it's never going to hatch.

Am I right, or wrong?

Arkansas Granny  (1000+ posts)      Thu Apr-30-09 09:08 AM
Response to Original message
 
1. She will leave the nest for food and water, sometimes just once a day, but she generally won't stay off the nest for very long. I haven't kept chickens for a long time, so I'm going from memory.

Grandma shows up:

hippywife  (1000+ posts)        Thu Apr-30-09 12:28 PM
Response to Original message

2. We have all hens but one did go broody on us and we let her for awhile. We took the eggs, they had gone bad because she hid them from us. But she continued to sit for a couple of weeks longer and did come out each day around noon to eat and drink.

[DumbAss Tanker]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=246x11183
Now, I'm no expert on poultry, other than dining on it, but it seems to me an egg that takes 21 days to hatch is a bad egg; it's never going to hatch.

Am I right, or wrong?

I believe that's the normal gestation period, Frank, though it's been a long time since we hatched any (Don't have poultry on the farm here in MO).  In fact most of the eggs will be older than 21 days, since the broody hen accumulates a clutch of them over a few days before she goes broody and starts incubating them seriously, which is what starts the clock a-tickin'.

[franksolich]

I believe that's the normal gestation period, Frank, though it's been a long time since we hatched any (Don't have poultry on the farm here in MO).  In fact most of the eggs will be older than 21 days, since the broody hen accumulates a clutch of them over a few days before she goes broody and starts incubating them seriously, which is what starts the clock a-tickin'.

Thanks, Tanker; I really didn't know.

But wow, 21 days is a lot of time for predators to get at an egg.

I never paid attention, but I thought it was like 5-6 days or something.

[delilahmused]

Egg gestation is 21 days but the eggs are usually laid over a period of days (and not necessarily by the same hen...they're not picky about whose babies they hatch). Generally they hatch within a few hours of each other but I've seen it take a couple of days.

The hens I feel sorry for are the ones who dutifully sit on their eggs for the duration and then a couple days before hatching (hens seem to know exactly when this will happen) another hen will join her in the nest box and steal the babies. Chicks aren't particular about which hen is their mother.

Cindie

[DumbAss Tanker]

But wow, 21 days is a lot of time for predators to get at an egg.

Well, that's a problem, but it kinda goes with the territory when you start farming or homesteading.  Any livestock you keep has to be protected from predators, including human ones, and anything you grow has to be protected from wildlife and your own livestock.

We used to shut the chickens up in the henhouse overnight (they settle in around dark), as except for feral dogs the predators are almost entirely nocturnal.  Once in a great while a 'possum would get in and the chickens would raise hell until someone would come out and off it with a .22 pistol.

modified by franksolich to correct minor formatting error; sorry for the intrusion