Broody Hen Thread!

[abserbean]

I give my girl snacks on the nest, she particularly likes scrambled eggs and shredded cheese, to help her keep up her weight. I do have to be careful though, she will get me if I'm too close!
On the topic of slaughtering roos, I would totally keep mine until they were old enough and do it myself, I grew up on a farm and I would prefer to eat my healthy meat. Unfortunately, my boys started crowing at eight weeks, they are nowhere near large enough to process, and I can't have the crowing for the next eight weeks or I could lose my whole flock. I know that they will most likely end up in a soup pot, but hopefully their next home will treat them well until time to process. When we have a larger place and can grow out our roosters, that is what we will do, but for now this solution has to be okay for us. I thought about trying to caponize them and process at the proper size, but realized that I would probably kill them attempting to do the surgery.

 

[fisherlady]

I'm a little worried about my broody. She was broody for two weeks before we finally got some hatching eggs for her. She has been sitting on those a week. I know being broody is physically taxing on the hen. Is there anything I can do to help maintain her health for these next two weeks?

As others have said, food and water within reach of her nest or hand feeding. Make sure it is a good protein content and not empty calories. If you do a 'search this thread' for the word protein and my username it should bring up a number of times I have listed a lot of feeding alternatives.

 

[quailtrail]

Sorry just catching up!! Yay for baby chicks! Well looking at ours hatching over the weekend! She has done an amazing job for her 1st time! One dedicated mama!

 

[sonderah]

I feel terrible! I have too much on my mind, & do not feel like I'm giving my girls or chicks the proper amount of my time! Things WILL settle in a month or so, but still...

I have a broody due to hatch today, & I need to close her off so the chicks cannot fall out of nest, coop is 3 1/2 ft from the ground. I so should have had this figured out by now! I'm such a crappy chicken mom as of late!
I use a doghouse on the ground normally, but already have a girl raising babies in it. Ahhhh!!! Idk what I'm gonna do with this one and her babies yet! I'm afraid to close her up cause its SOOOO humid and hot!
Maybe 1 of my dogs will have to lose their house for awhile, they rarely use them anyway, they prefer to sleep on our porch. Lol

 

[RobSherman]

I have a broody Lavender Ameraucana. Etta is determined, she is presently sitting on more nonfertile eggs than will fit under her. I have ordered some light sussex fertile eggs, which should be here today. Here is the plan... Remove Etta from the nest, remove most of the eggs from under her, replace with fertile eggs, put ceramic eggs in another nesting box hopefully to entice the other girls to lay elsewhere, then see what happens in 3 weeks. I don't see her getting down to eat and drink. I'm worried because it is so hot here in Texas. I turned on their patio mister yesterday, and will again during the heat of the day today. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I have a broody Lavender Ameraucana. Etta is determined, she is presently sitting on more nonfertile eggs than will fit under her. I have ordered some light sussex fertile eggs, which should be here today. Here is the plan... Remove Etta from the nest, remove most of the eggs from under her, replace with fertile eggs, put ceramic eggs in another nesting box hopefully to entice the other girls to lay elsewhere, then see what happens in 3 weeks. I don't see her getting down to eat and drink. I'm worried because it is so hot here in Texas. I turned on their patio mister yesterday, and will again during the heat of the day today. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

If you have the ceramic eggs now, I would put them under her now and remove all the non-fertile eggs. Check under her daily and take any eggs the other hens lay in the same box. Make sure you mark the fertile eggs very clearly--something like a thick line all the way around the egg so that no matter which side is facing up, you can tell if it is one of your hatching eggs. I don't know what is safe to use to mark hatching eggs--others with more experience can chime in--but it needs to be something that won't rub/wear off. Once your hatching eggs come, just remove the ceramic eggs and replace them with the hatching eggs. There really is no reason to remove her from the nest box and doing so can cause her to struggle and end up breaking eggs; just put your hand under her and take the non fertile eggs out.

I rarely caught my broody hens out of the nest box, but they must have gotten off because the one who refused to eat or drink on the nest box when I offered to hand feed/water was in pretty good condition by the time the egg hatched. I did take her off on really hot days and put her beside food and water, but she is a pretty docile bird.

I do think you have to worry about the heat. Make sure the nest box is very well ventilated, perhaps with no top so that there is no heat build up in the nest box. You might want to put in a digital thermometer just outside the nest box to get an idea of how hot the area is outside the nest box. The nest box will likely be hotter still.

I'm in South Central Texas and find the heat is too much for most of my chickens. If you have suggestions for reducing the heat, please send them on. I'm really worried about my bantam Cochins that are in a pen under trees with a big tarp over most of the pen. They still look like they are not coping as well as I would like.

 

[chickenlady772]

Have a white leghorn that was fertilized by my at the time rooster "gone now", anyways she has been sitting on her 3 eggs since 3 wks ago. but, the last two days she gets up to eat then goes to another nest box with eggs that were just laid and she sits on them. Now i didn't realize that till today and her eggs are cold. My son said she never was on the for the last two days just in another box. So now what? Are eggs any good? I put her eggs under her and she ends up moving, like she doesn't want them. What do you think?

 

[Aunt ruth]

Yesterday I discovered that my broody's nest box was filled with mites. So I stayed her legs and neck (not belly) with adams flea spray and I removed the eggs and some of the bedding and sprayed the edges of the box down too. I was as careful as I could not to get any of the spray on the eggs but I was wondering if I did, would it hurt the eggs in any way?

 

[ChickyChickens]

Went to feed my broodies today when al of a sudden I heard a growling noise. So I checked where the noise was coming from and noticed that it was one of my younger hens that just started laying had gone broody! I as soo happy because she has only been laying for 2 weeks.
Then it struck me...do you guys think she will be fine with going broody so young????

 

[Back2Roots]

Aunt ruth, is there any chance that you can move her and her eggs to a new nest even if temporarily? The reason I’m asking is that mites are a challenge to get rid of, and I think you will need to clean out all the bedding and treat all surfaces in the box. Personally I would not want to use any of the recommended solutions without giving the chemicals a chance to do their work and dissipate before I returned a broody and eggs back to the nestbox. I made a portable broody nest box out of a big plastic Rubbermaid tote: drilled several large 3" vent holes on the sides and back near the top, added a big skylight opening in the lid and attached some 1/2" welded wire across all openings except the doorway. I made it so that I can move her into a sectioned off corner of a new larger coop with the rest of the flock after the chicks hatch. Could this work for you too?