What is your setup to keep a broody in with flock?

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Beau coop

Beau coop

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I have a bantam RIR who has just gone broody. If she stays on the nest, what accomodations do I need to make?

She is of course in everyone's favorite nest box. My only experience with a broody, I brought inside because I was fascinated by the process. Not so much interested in broody poo smell anymore. I would like to keep this girl in the run with the rest of the flock- but the coop gets too hot. I was thinking of putting her in shade in a large dog crate. This way she is out of the hot coop, and can still go out into the run for breaks.

What suggestions do you all have? Can she stay out there in the run even after they hatch? Some people say no, some say yes. If left to their own devices, what would the broody do- would she leave the flock? Or stay?

What have you guys done? Any pictures of your setups?
 
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Just joined up today. I don't have an answer, but have a very similar problem! I have a hen setting on eggs in a tall henhouse - very long ladder - with 3 other hens. Not sure at all what to do when they hatch.... I can't imagine moving her before they hatch, I think it would upset her too much... I posted my question too, hope we get some answers!
Juneauwendy
 
i MOVED MY BROODY INTO A SMALL CAT CRATE AND PUT whole thing back into the nest box for 2 days., because they get mad if you move them from their broody spot. After the 2 days i mov the whole set up with her in the crate to a cage that i have built into the coop in a corner. it is actually built on top of another larger cage that i used for meat birds and newbies. I put her there and open the crate door. When the babies hatch i take out the crate and mamma has a 3 X 2 space for her and her new kiddies. Has worked out fantastic. ErinM
 
First time I had a broody was before I found BYC. I marked the eggs and left her in with the flock. I'd check on them at least twice a day, and remove newly laid eggs. There were 3 or 4 marked eggs, and one hatched. Last time, I did crate her while she set, but removed the crate and left mama and chicks with the flock when they hatched. I opened the crate every morning and she would go out, eat, poop, scratch, then go back to the nest in about 20 minutes. (There was food and water in the cage, of course, but she rarely touched them.)

Free range chickens often go off by themselves to set, making a nest on the ground underneath something, then return to the flock with babies around 2 or 3 days old. I about can't bring myself to cage a chicken, but this felt OK as she wouldn't get off the nest the rest of the day anyway, so it seemed I was caging the others out.

The crate in the shade should work, esp. if she will feel like she is a bit hidden. She's unlikely to leave the nest more than once a day.
 
I have a fenced off brooder room and I have also used a crate.
I would never leave a broody in with the entire flock. I know "everyone" says that a hen will absolutely defend her chicks. I had a silkie hen in a cabinet that I had turned into a 2x4 cage. After her chicks hatched, the cabinet door somehow came open one evening. The flock ate one of the day-old chicks, tore it to shreds in front of my horrified daughter. Terrible way to learn a lesson.
 
I left my broody in the favorite box and marked eggs. The above post(ddawn) is about as exact as my experiences so far.
 
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Which one, mine or chickenmaven's?

We posted together. Thanks!
 
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I am so sorry this happened to you. I understand it can, and maybe I should have specified this. Hens SHOULD defend their chicks, but breeders have been breeding broodiness out of them, so I think this is more unpredictable than before all this selective breeding started.

In my case, all the birds had been with the broody the year before when everything went fine. Personally, if it were the first time, I would have done the same, because I want a flock that can handle their own babies, even if I were to have to cull an attack hen. This is personal choice, of course.
 
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the first time i left my broody with her chicks the other
hens killed them all 4
this time Mama hen has another batch of 3 and defends them i keep an eye on them but they are doing great at 2 weeks.
I guess they have to learn.to protect their own.
 
I tried to put my broody into a small crate yesterday. She lost her little chicken mind. She put up such a fuss, I put her back into the main coop, and back into her nesting box. I am very worried that if they do indeed hatch that the other hens will kill them. I know they are supposed to protect the babies but as another poster said, the broodiness has been bred out of them.

I have an OEGB who hatched some babies earlier this year, who was a terrific protector. So maybe if broody doesn't protect them the OEGB might.
 

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