does anyone out there know any tricks to get a hen to sit on her eggs? mine are laying but not tending to them.
Whoa--not a bad mother, just not ready to SET. Hens don't pay any attention to their eggs until setting time. You should gather her eggs every day!! Date them with pencil and save them in an egg carton in a cool place==not refrigerator. Tilt one end up on a book or something and reverse the ends a couple of times a day. When Mother Nature trips her time-clock (you have no control over this), she will stay on her nest (eggs in the nest,or not-it's a hormone-temperature thing), and scrunch down, lift her feathers and kind of squeach at you. This is Broody-time! Then, next night, give her the freshest of the eggs you saved, and only as many as she can cover comfortably. Mark the date on your calendar, allow her to reach food and water every day, she will leave the nest, maybe 2 or more x a day, then less as the 21 DAYS GO BY! That's the trick-no trick! All done by Mother Nature! CJR
By Cjeanr on Saturday, March 20, 1999 - 06:06 pm: