I decided to let my hen have one clutch, this year. I gave her a nesting box, and she promptly started laying. Problem is, she is currently sitting on 10 eggs! I am sure she would not be able to raise all ten chicks successfully, but what to do????

Middle of last week I removed 3 eggs, leaving 7, she has now laid 3 more and we are back to ten! I am fairly sure most are fertile. The first layed should hatch within a day.

What would you do?

I have no other hens laying, so fostering is not an option.

If you don’t have any foster pair where you can move them, there is little you can do. A pair can successfully raise 6 or even more, but once it goes past 6 it’s a big strain on them. I would wait for some chick to hatch & then if you get 6 out, just remove the rest of the eggs & bury them, I wouldn’t break them or anything as it’s not pleasant to break eggs & see live babies in them. Some may suggest hand raising some, which you could do if you wanted, but I don’t recommend it as it’s a time consuming task & mostly I don’t think it’s as good as parent raised. If you wanted to hand raise, I would suggest removing the oldest young leaving the youngest to be raise by the parents.

With alot of chicks in a nest and the last remaining eggs getting all poopy, the last eggs often don t hatch due to contamination of the egg creating dead in shell babies. You may only end up with 5-6 chicks anyway. Often the hen cannot keep all the eggs warm when there is that many too, and the whole 10 may not ever hatch anyway.

you could always give them to someone in the area that breeds budgies to let their hens raise them??? just advertise in your local newspaper or ring some of the advertisements

you could always give them to someone in the area that breeds budgies to let their hens raise them??? just advertise in your local newspaper or ring some of the advertisements

If the eggs are close to hatching you only have 20 mins to get them under another hen.

oh... yes that could pose a problem unless they are local and live very close by...

What you will find is that the youngest will most likely not survive as it will be less than half the size of the eldest & will more than likely get squashed by it's elder siblings. Unfortunatley fostering is the only way when this happens.

I have had a couple raise 7 but I fostered the oldest two for a week to a young hen & placed them back. I did not let this pair go for a second clutch & have only put them down yesterday after a 3 month lay off to rest.

Thanks for the advice everyone, you have given me lots to think about. I do have a friend who breeds budgies on a much larger scale than me, I will give him a call for a foster Mum. I only breed for me and family and close friends, which is why I have one hen breeding, one clutch only.

 

 

Which raises another question, which way do you have more success, fostering eggs or the chicks?

Thanks for the advice everyone, you have given me lots to think about. I do have a friend who breeds budgies on a much larger scale than me, I will give him a call for a foster Mum. I only breed for me and family and close friends, which is why I have one hen breeding, one clutch only.

 

 

Which raises another question, which way do you have more success, fostering eggs or the chicks?

Depends on how soon you can put them under an appropriate hen ( one who is sitting on eggs already ) and how quickly you can put newly hatched chicks under a hen ( one who is sitting on eggs nearly due to hatch ). You may need more than one hen.

If the pair are pet type birds, not really buff, they maybe able to raise a large clutch. As you posted, you were only going to let them have one clutch. That should be fine. Just keep the protein and calcium up to them.