first time broody question

[rcgII]

I'm new to raising chickens so this site has been a life saver. One of my silkies has gone broody in the coop with my laying hens. She has been sitting on a golf ball for three days. I have a small coop and run I fixed for such occasions. My question is when and how is best to move her and give her eggs? Most of the reading I've done says do it at night. I guess I'm just looking for confirmation or better suggestions from people with more experience than me.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Different people do it different ways. I’ve had success and I’ve had failure, but it normally works. I suggest you fix the pen she is going to, complete with food, water, and fake eggs or sacrificial eggs in the nest. Make the nest itself as dark as you can. Having the pen she is in fairly dark, or at least not in bright sunlight, helps too but the nest is the main thing. I go so far as to put a door on the nest so I can lock her in it and keep it really dark in there.

Move her at night after it is really dark with as little light and commotion as possible. Lock her in that nest that night, all the next day, and the following night. Make sure the nest is not in the sun where you are going to cook her. Open it up the following morning and see what she does. That pen needs to be locked so she cannot return to her old nest. Be patient. She may pace and look anxious, trying to get back to her old nest, but there is a pretty good chance she will return to the new nest and accept the move. There is always the chance she will not accept the move and break from being broody but give her time.

Before they go broody hens store up a lot of extra fat. That’s mainly what she lives off of while broody. She still needs to get off the nest to eat, drink, and poop some but they can stay on the nest for a long time without suffering. Keeping her locked up that first day is not being cruel to her, she can handle it.

If she accepts the new nest, wait two days to make sure, give her the eggs you want her to hatch. You can do this day or night after she has accepted the move. Remove the fake or sacrificial eggs and replace them with the eggs you want her to hatch.

Good luck and welcome to the adventure of broody hens.

 

[rcgII]

Thanks. I'll try her with a few golf balls in the new nest. She seems OK with them in her current nest.

 

[tiffvitorino]

Thanks also for the advice...I have a hen sitting on 4 eggs not even sure if they are all fertile eggs. I have a rooster so I'm hoping so. She has been there about 10 days. My issue is im worried because the nesting box she is in is about 2-3 feet off the ground. It is inside where all my others purch at night. I'm worried when these hatch the baby's are gonna fall down the 2-3 feet. But going in a night to move her to a bottom nest on ground is gonna cause a disturbance to all my others purching. I have some stairs im thining of putting at the nest just in case? Or should I move her to the ground during the day when no one is around? I'm worried moving she will stop laying in the eggs. She is extremely stubborn and I tried moving her once in the beginning and she is pretty determined. So I left her. What do you think I should do?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Personally I’d probably leave her alone. I’ve seen a hen get her chicks down from a ten feet high hay loft. Mama flew to the ground, said jump, and they did, then bounced up and ran to her. A two to three foot fall is not likely to hurt them.

As long as you have a decent lip on the nest they are not likely to fall. If the eggs and bedding haven’t been scratched out you are probably OK.

But there might be another concern. How big is the nest? Is the broody hen sitting pretty close to an edge? It’s pretty common for the first chicks that hatch to crawl up on Mama’s back while they are waiting on the later chicks to hatch. If Mama is real close to the edge that chick might miss the nest entirely and fall to the floor when it falls off. It won’t be hurt but it can’t get back up. One time I let a hen hatch in a kitty litter bucket. Not the kitty litter bin but the bucket the litter comes in. It was maybe 7-1/2” x 11-1/2“. The hen was sitting right next to the side. Three times I had to pick a chick up and put it back in the nest with Mama. Right after that hatch I retired that nest.

 

[animalwild]

I was on vacation and we decided we would take some eggs and see if they would hatch. Today I went out and marked them and saw a hen go up and sit when I left. She's not isolated and other chickens can get up there I would be able to put a watered in this small coop with food and she'd have plenty of room but do you think the eggs will hatch if we don't even know if some are fertile or not. Because I have a rooster so we think at least half will hatch do you think this plan will work. Or should we put in more hens with her because we have room where she is.

 

[tiffvitorino]

Okay thank you I'll check the lip I think it's okay if not I'll put something there to help. Also I'll make sure it's a soft landing below just in case. Thank you again

 

[animalwild]

Maybe you could make sure there's plenty of hay in the bow every day

 

[MarionCraig]

Hi all - I have just tried to get my broody hen to sit on a clutch of eggs in a separate coop to where she was - no joy. So I moved the box I had made with the eggs in back into the main coop and within one minute she had gathered them all up (11 eggs) and was sitting on them. My question is: Is it ok to let her hatch the eggs in the coop with four other hens and one cockerel? The are all bantams and Arthur is not an aggressive cockerel.

 

[animalwild]

I'm wondering the same thing if I should let my hen have contact with the other hens and rooster while she has a clutch