broody hen complex

[oldchickenlady]

Hi all BYC'ers! I have a situation and I hope someone on here can give me some more ideas. I have a 6x8 coop with a 12x20 covered run with 4 nest boxes. I have 8 hens and one roo. I have 4 hens who have gone broody and I want to make like a broody hen complex separate from the original coop and run. I had thought maybe a 10x10 covered wire pen divided into 4 separate 5x5 pens with a nest in each section.I dont want to invest too much money or time into this design since I am somewhat short on money and very short on time! I was thinking of a 2x4 frame with 1x2 welded wire with hardware cloth around the bottom exterior wire to prevent chick escapes and predators from reaching into the pens. I am thinking a good plastic tarp over the top to keep rain out. The interior sections could be made with regular chicken wire. Of course each section has to have some sort of door for food/water to go in.

Does anyone on here have any ideas or designs that are better/cheaper/easier than what I have in mind? Thanks in advance for any and all help or ideas!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Guess a couple of questions. You intend to have the hens hatch eggs, then are you going to let them raise the chicks and for how long? Do you plan on putting all or some of them in with your flock in the coop?

 

[oldchickenlady]

I do intend to let the hens keep the chicks for a while, not sure how long. I don't really need anymore chickens so I will probably sell them. They are the 2nd generation from chicks I purchased from Jerry Foley in Kentucky, so they are very very pretty chickens. I sold an extra rooster to a man in New York for $100.00 this spring. I had 1 year old hens last year go broody and I kept trying to break them but they wouldn't. 2 were so persistant they actually starved themselves to death. I was devastated! So I hand fed the other 2 that went broody so I wouldn't lose anymore. I ended up hatching a batch in my homemade incubator to get the 7 I have now. So this year I am not even trying to break them from going broody. But, I need a good broody pen to do this right.