One week has passed since the chicks were due to hatch. Corroborated by several web resources, chicks will not hatch more than a few days passed the incubation period (I.e., 21 d due, 24 d max).
So this morning I took away the remaining three eggs. I dug a hole in the blueberry patch, and, as I prepared to bury them, I couldn’t help myself – I had to know. I cracked open each egg, prepared to see a nasty decomposing embryo. Instead I found yolks. Watery, homogeneous yolks. No sign of baby chickens. The eggs were never fertilized!
I apologized to Calamity Jane for deceiving her into believing she had three more chances to figure it out. What next? I am tempted to try again. But it begs the question: Is it CJ who wants the chicks? Or is it me?
Sustainable Scientist 
candle them at about a week or so and will save her the trouble of sitting so long on bad eggs, and if you want some fertile ones i can mail you some only cost would be shipping. I have several nice breeds laying
Hi,We have a persistently bdrooy porcelain Belgian D’Uccle bantam hen (1.25 yr old Marilyn’), and it seems we just can’t break her of it. We tried the wire-bottom method (dog crate), the golf balls and isolation. She continues to brood. This has been going on for over a month now. We really miss her eggs! We have two new young Silkie roosters; they aren’t mature yet, so no eggs have been fertile. We recently returned Marilyn’ to the flock. Isolation seemed to reinforce her broodiness she’s been a little more prone to getting out there to forage during range time if she’s with the rest of them. However, one of the NH Red hens chases her we wonder if pecking order activity contributes to broodiness..?? Our flock: three 1.25-year old NH Reds; one 1.25-year old Golden Duckwing bantam (she has been successfully broken of recent broodiness she finally laid an egg, but none since); 3 young Silkies from this spring; two young spring Wyandotte hens; and one young spring Brahma hen.We surely welcome any further ideas on how to break Marilyn.’Info on post-broody laying expectations would also be helpful.thanks:)
We have three Orpingtons that would go broody, we would put them in a cage for a few days and that would cure them. We have a litlte dark Brahma that just about withered away this spring because she would not get off the nest and the cage would not work for her. So every day I would take her and one of her sisters for company to a small fenced garden inside my yard to get away from the bullies and eat worms and after weeks of dedication she finally came out of it but it was somewhat frustrating at the time. Now I have an Orpington, a light Brahma, and a Partridge Cochin that have all gone broody, and I am thinking of trying some of the ideas I have read here, so thanks to everyone who graciously tries to help out. By the way, I have a rooster but one comment made me start thinking there is something to the others picking on them that may contribute to the broodiness.