2 Broody Hens

[BYCforlife]

Do you let her out at least once a day to poop and take a dust bath or something? Otherwise it's not very healthy for the hen, and risks the eggs.

That's why I decided to break my next broody. The other hens are just too mean to let my hens go broody.

 

[centrarchid]

As a general rule I allow only one hen to use a nest at a time. Hatch rate and chick survival rate will average higher.

Very recently I almost had an exception where two sisters laid clutches in the same nest with one laying just under half the eggs going broody first. Total number of eggs was 27, a lot higher than typical. What I did was pull one of the hens and placed her in a cage to break broodiness. The other hen incubated the clutch, hatching 24 of the 27. Two died by suffocation reducing number to 22 which is where we are now.

Based on prior experience more would either failed to hatch or suffocated if both hens were allowed to remain.

Imagine two hens packed into that cavity.

The flip side of this is that a single hen will have trouble covering such a large brood. It would have been better all around if each hen had her own nest. Eggs would be better covered and chicks protected without conflicts or being smashed. Warm weather and my intervention increases odds most the the chicks will survive.

The cute factor can where off when you take into consideration of increased chick mortality. Sometimes the hens can conflict in a manner that directly kills chicks. Smaller clutches involving smaller hens and larger eggs may be more resilient.

 

[jrun808]

I give them free reign, they can leave the next eat go outside when ever they want during the day. I have not sectioned them off from the rest of the flock because of the way my coop is setup. I will finish marking the eggs and take out all the new ones daily.
Thank you all so much for your advise, it really helps me.
Joe

 

[jrun808]

Yesterday afternoon I separated the hen with her eggs in the coop, she did not like it at all and started breaking the eggs. So we will start again and see what works for her.
Thanks Joe