Hatching

Broody Hens: Signs, Hatching Eggs Under a Hen and Breaking Broodiness

Field guide · Updated October 14, 2026 · about 7 min read

A broody hen has stopped laying and wants to sit on eggs until they hatch. Useful if you want chicks, a nuisance if you want eggs. This page covers how to recognize broodiness, the 21-day hatch day by day, and the extension-service methods for breaking it.

Signs of a broody hen

What you see	Source
Sits in the nest for long periods, even when not laying, and refuses to get off the eggs	Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Oregon State
Leaves the nest only briefly to eat and drink	Kentucky
Fluffs her feathers and pecks when you reach for the eggs; protective and possessive of the nest	Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri
Develops a "clucking" voice	Missouri
Stops laying	Kentucky, Oregon State, Missouri
Bald patch on the chest (the brood patch); she pulls breast feathers out to line the nest	Maryland, Kentucky
Strong-smelling droppings, because she holds them longer	Kentucky

Broodiness happens with or without a rooster, so her eggs may not be fertile, and some hens sit in an empty nest (University of Kentucky Extension).

Why hens go broody

Hormones. Kentucky Extension explains that a hen has a hormone surge before laying; normally levels return to normal, but if they stay high she turns broody. They are the same hormones that prepare a mammal to lactate; Wikipedia names the key one as prolactin, from the pituitary.
Day length and season. Mississippi State Extension says the tendency to set is determined by genetics and seasonal changes, with increasing day length in spring the primary influence.
The nest itself. Oregon State: the usual stimulus is a nest full of eggs, though some hens go broody without it. Georgia Extension adds that nests and nesting material encourage broodiness and that hens can pick it up from flock mates.
Breed. Oregon State calls Cochins and Silkies "champions at going broody" and says broodiness is rare in Leghorns; Kentucky also names Buff Orpingtons. Commercial laying strains have been selected to reduce broodiness (Kentucky). The breed directory has a broodiness column.

Hatch or break? Deciding quickly

Question	What the sources say
Do you have fertile eggs?	Grocery store eggs are not fertile and will not hatch (Maryland). Without a rooster in your flock you need hatching eggs from elsewhere; Maryland recommends hatcheries in the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP).
What does a broody cost in eggs?	She stops laying while broody (Oregon State). Georgia Extension: broodiness "can reduce egg production by as much as 8 to 10 eggs per hen."
Hen or incubator?	Missouri Extension: the natural brood-hen method is less expensive but produces fewer chicks. Maryland calls letting a broody hen sit the easiest way to hatch eggs.

Letting her hatch: setup checklist

Pick eggs. Clean, normal-shaped, average-size eggs; do not wash them (Maryland). Missouri says excessively large or small eggs are often infertile and to skip cracked, dirty or thin-shelled eggs.
Store them briefly. Maryland: big end up, at about 65–70°F, for up to seven days with little loss of fertility. Missouri prefers 45–55°F, says a household refrigerator (40–45°F) is too cold, recommends setting within three to four days and never storing fertile eggs more than two weeks. Below 68°F the embryo stops developing, and a broody hen's warmth restarts it (Kentucky, "Development of the Chick").
Match the clutch to the hen. The number she can hatch depends on her size; Maryland says larger hens can handle up to 20 eggs. Eggs from several hens can go under the same broody.
Secure the nest. Give her a safe place where predators cannot reach her or the eggs, with adequate food, water and ventilation (Maryland).
Keep the layers laying. Missouri notes you may need extra nests for hens that are still laying.
Let her turn the eggs. Hens turn eggs naturally; only incubated eggs need turning by hand or with a turner (Maryland).
Mark day 0 on a calendar. Chicken eggs take 21 days. A hen will also sit on turkey, duck or guinea fowl eggs (Kentucky); those take longer — Maryland's table gives 28 days for duck and turkey eggs.

The 21-day timeline

Embryo stages follow University of Kentucky Extension's "Development of the Chick" and Illinois Extension's development chart. Candling — shining a bright light through the shell in a dark room — appears in the sources' incubator guidance.

Day	Inside the egg	What you can do
0	Eggs set; development restarts once warmed	Note the date
2	Blood vessels form and the heart begins to beat (Illinois: at about 30 hours)	—
7	Egg tooth and wing and leg segments distinct	Utah State: candle every seven days; by day 7 a healthy embryo shows veins reaching the shell
10	Beak begins to harden	Maryland: candle after 10 days — infertile eggs look bright, eggs with growing embryos look dark; remove infertile eggs and dead embryos, which can explode
14	Eyes close; head turns toward the air cell	Utah State: a chick can usually be seen; after day 14 most eggs should not be candled
17	Head under the right wing: the hatching position	Missouri suggests three to four days before hatch as a time to remove infertile eggs — sources differ on late candling
18	—	Incubator users stop turning eggs (Maryland, Utah State, Kentucky); a hen needs no help
19	Yolk sac is drawn into the body	—
20	Chick breaks the amnion and starts breathing air in the air cell (Illinois); pips the shell (Kentucky)	—
21	Chick hatches	Time from pip to hatch varies greatly; helping a chick out carries risk and can kill it (Maryland)

Day 2: heart begins to beat (Kentucky; Illinois says about 30 hours).
Day 7: first candling — veins reach the shell in a healthy egg (Utah State).
Day 10: candling shows infertile eggs bright, developing eggs dark (Maryland).
Day 14: chick usually visible; most eggs should not be candled after this (Utah State).
Day 17: head under the right wing, the hatching position (Kentucky).
Day 18: incubators stop turning; a hen needs no help (Maryland, Utah State, Kentucky).
Day 20: chick pips the shell and breathes air (Kentucky, Illinois).
Day 21: hatch.

Timeline drawn by HenClass from the University of Kentucky, Illinois, Utah State and University of Maryland Extension publications cited on this page. Days are spaced to scale; individual hatches vary.

Not every egg hatches: Missouri Extension says about two in every 10 eggs normally do not. Utah State notes that a chick that has not hatched one or two days after the hatching period likely will not survive. Kentucky Extension adds that peeping chicks are what tell the hen she is done setting; if nothing hatches, she does not get that signal, and some hens keep sitting. Once chicks hatch, the chick care checklist covers feed, water and space as they grow.

Breaking broodiness

Steps 1–4 follow Kentucky Extension's order, gentlest first.

Collect eggs often. At least daily, including from hiding places (Oregon State); Kentucky says as often as possible.
Lift her off at night. Take her off the nest after dark and set her on a perch with the other hens (Kentucky).
Close the nests. Block the nest boxes at night, after the other hens have laid (Kentucky). Oregon State: remove her access to the nest for several days.
Use a broody pen with a wire floor. Kentucky: a wire-bottomed cage in the middle of the coop with feed and water but no nesting material; it may take a few days. Georgia Extension: a pen like the laying pen but with no nest, for 7 to 10 days, because wire floors give her no dirt or grass to nest in. If the hen stays broody, Georgia says to repeat the process.
Add light. Georgia Extension also uses low continuous light — about 0.5 foot candles for 12 hours or more, from 60 to 100 watt bulbs hung about 4 feet above the floor. See supplemental lighting for timers and schedules.

Waiting it out does not always work: Kentucky Extension says that after 21 days a hen may give up, "but this is not always the case," and some hens are serial brooders that go broody again soon after. Once broody behavior ends, she returns to laying (Oregon State). HenClass does not give veterinary advice; if a hen stops eating or looks unwell, contact a veterinarian or your county extension office.