Hi from the Northern Rivers, Australia.

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fruity7

fruity7

Chirping
8 Years
Sep 2, 2014
9
1
67
Hi Chook People,

I'm in the Northern Rivers, NSW and have one rooster (Temujin, a jungle fowl), 6 isa browns and 5 old English game bantams. We live on 22 acres and the chooks free range all day but have a yard and coop for night time.

We only bought the place and collected the chooks recently. For the last few months they have all been laying well, but last week one bantam got broody and started sitting on eggs. I was delighted. Now 4 of them are sitting on all the eggs in all 3 nest boxes, and I think I didn't think this through well enough!

I was going to move the four of them into a little pen with a few eggs each, but then I started reading online and am unsure what to do. If I move them, will they abandon the eggs? I have put a few cosy cardboard boxes in the coop this evening hoping the remaining hens will lay in those and I can leave the bantams alone. Is this likely to work? I don't know which eggs were laid on which days. What do I do when some start to hatch? I'm thinking I should move the unhatched eggs under the next broody hen along? Maybe move the hatcher and chicks into a separate pen once they hatch?

This afternoon I went into the yard and found a pecked open, empty Isa Brown egg near the door, a couple of metres away from the nest boxes. I don't know whether a broody bantam did this, or one of the other hens.

Hopefully next time round I will be better prepared for motherhood.

We have had some very hot days over the last week; up to 39C, and I've found giving the chooks frozen jaboticas has been popular. We had a glut and they have been in the freezer for a while so I'm glad to use them as chook popsicles, although they defrost very quickly once I scatter them around.

One other interesting thing, one of the chooks is a social isolate. Has anyone else had a hen like this? She isn't pecked or isolated by the others, she just takes herself away on her own all day, roosts away from the others in the coop and is always the last one in at night as she is off on her own.

OK, that's all, nice to meet you all :)
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
frow.gif


So glad you could join our community!

You can move broodies, but you do take your chances that they stop the incubation process. These broodies chose these spots to do their thing because they felt they were the best places to hatch their chicks. So moving them may not satisfy these broodies. BUT....for the best chances of keeping them broody, try moving them at night when it is dark. Move the eggs first, and then the bird. You can use cardboard boxes with great success. But where ever you move them, keep these boxes away from the boxes they are in now as they may get up the next morning, seeing where they were, and move back to the old boxes. So keep these new boxes in another corner. You might also cover the entrance with a towel or curtain. Broodies love to think they are hiding from the rest of the flock. This may help to keep them in. Keep the food and water close by and you might want to section the broody section off so the hens that are not broody don't mess with the eggs or lay in these clutches.

Good luck with your broodies and I hope you get lots of chicks!!
 
G'day and Welcome to Backyard chickens. Very glad you joined the flock. Seems like when one hen goes broody the others decide to follow.
 
BTW Backyard chickens has a very good aussie thread called "Australia, six states and one funny little island." You may want to see what our neighbors are up too, maybe some would be interested in your eggs or chicks.
 
Thanks everyone, great advice. It didn't work out this time but at least I have a much better idea where to go from here. We made a little nursery pen inside the coop but away from the regular nest boxes. Moved all four broodies over with 23 eggs last night. They freaked and wouldn't stay with them. I should have sectioned them off where they were and made the non-broodies lay in other boxes. This morning all the eggs were cold and two of the bantams had stopped being broody. The other two had made their way back to the regular nest boxes and have a few eggs under them, all Isa Brown eggs. So we have marked the new eggs with the date and will leave them where they are. Have put a towel over the opening for them, hopefully to discourage the other hens from laying in there too. I feel bad about the eggs that were left and didn't get to hatch, but hopefully we can get a few to work out this time by being better prepared.

Drumstick Diva, thanks for the head's up about the Aussie thread, great reading :)
 

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