[thestephens]

it will be 21 days tomorrow since Petal sat on 6 eggs we got from a neighbour, should i be seeing, hearing anything by now???
To say im excited, a friend texted with the word "baby?" and i wrote back not yet they should hatch friday, it wasnt until i was lying in my bed i realised she was asking after my sister, not the hen!!!!!!!

[Brijjy]

What sort of eggs is she sitting on? In my experience bantams may hatch a day earlier than 21 days and large fowl may be a day later. Were the eggs very fresh when they were put under or had they been around for a while? I think fresher eggs could also take a day longer to hatch. If they are near to hatching now, try not to disturb the hen as this will upset her. The first signs will be some empty egg shells that the hen will have turfed out of the nest. Good luck.

[Oneeyedhen]

Our hen "dolly" has been sitting on eggs for 3 weeks and a day, it appears she's had enough as she got off them today. Nothing but cold eggs and plenty of them. As I suspected, her friends had been adding eggs to her box, she started off with 6 under her, there were 22!! All wasted
So much for not disturbing her, I think I'll move her to her own space if there is a next time.

[Brijjy]

If I want any of my broodies to sit, I move them from the main pen into a broody coop so that the others can't get to them. I do this when a hen has been broody for about a week and then get her to sit on a china egg for a couple of days. This tests whether she is serious about sitting. If she is the proper eggs go under her.

[jaykay]

If you cheep at eggs that are about to hatch they often cheep back.
You sometimes see the first 'pipping', ie where the beak has first broken the shell, a day early, sometimes not. I'd give it a couple of days yet.