Too long off nest? Box too small?

[cardoon]

Can anyone give me advice please? I've got a couple of hens sitting on eggs, both in new purpose-built nest boxes.

We've just bought these boxes in France (where we live) where everything is usually REALLY expensive for a good price; now however I'm worried that they're a bit small at 42 x 51.5 x 43cm because in both cases the hens are not returning to their eggs once they've come off to eat. I find both of the hens nipping back to the main hen house, even after I've taken all the eggs ie sitting on nothing.

My question is, for roughly how long can a nest be left without Mum before the eggs become non-viable? I fear that in one case this has been at least an hour, maybe longer. Should I cut my losses and chuck out the eggs? What do you think about the dimensions of the box?

Any advice very welcome, thanks in advice.

 

[chrismahon]

We've had a hen leave the nest and come back to the box next to it and sit on the wrong eggs. She was off for about 4 hours and the eggs were stone cold. All hatched. Have read up to 12 hours and they are just a day late. They should be in a separate run so they don't get confused and sit on the wrong eggs Cardoon. Nothing wrong with the nest boxes, just they have a memory of where the nest box should be, where it's always been.

 

[cardoon]

That's really helpful, thanks. What a quick response! I'm reluctant to move them again now, s'pose I could if problems continue.

Thanks again, it's great to hear someone else's experiences. Cheers.

 

[AlexArt]

I've had the same problem so now put my broodies in separate runs with their nest box, then I can let them out in the morning, shut them back up again after 1/2 and hour or so and same again in the evening and it works pretty well, I find if they have choice they often wander off and either sit on nothing or on someone elses eggs! Mind you I had to shut one broody off the eggs everytime I let her out in her run as she would not eat or drink otherwise and just go straight back on them - trouble is I had a phone call and various other things popped up so I forgot and only remembered 6hrs later - they were turkey eggs and had gone stone cold - it was when we had all that cold weather the week before last! - I thought I'd killed them, but last week all 8 hatched with no problems!!!! - Whew!!! 07

 

[cardoon]

What a relief, I suppose they'll be ready for xmas! Problem here is that I'm running out of discreet fenced off areas. I have one hen sitting in a box in the main hen run (which is about 200 m2), another in the garage and yet another in the lockable 'goose house' which she's sharing with a hen and her three youngsters. Today we've found one of the ducks sitting, she'll have to be moved to the only other enclosure we have which has an in-built swimming pool (an old sink). How big are your caged areas? I think we'll have to fence off a part of the main hen run perhaps.

Congratulations again on the turkeys!