A Broody hen setting her apart?? update... help!!!

[yodercountrygirl]

My Japense Banty is hatching a clutch out!! Day #2!! Do I need to seperate her from the others. She is in a nest that the other use! Will that be a problem?
My first time hatching!!!

 

[mulia24]

yes, that will be problem if other hen come in her nest and lay another egg, keep her on other place that won't be intruded by any hen or roo.

 

[Lollipop]

May or may not be a problem, but usually is. Kinda late to move her now as chicks could get squashed in the transition. She should have been alone from the git go. Hopefully you have the nest on the floor so the chicks can leave and enter. If not, you must move her and/or the nest ASAP as the time is approaching when she will take them off the nest, maybe today, but most definately by tomorrow. She will want to return to the nest at night for a while and the chicks must have access. She probably will be able to defend them from the other hens, which will resent the intrusion. You MUST observe to be sure she is able to do this.

First thing you should do with any broody is give them their own private place so the hen and the eggs/brood will be safe. Next time maybe. Just keep an eye on them. Good luck......Pop

 

[yodercountrygirl]

My Banty does not have chicks yet she just started setting on them. My question is will she be fine if I move her to a different nest or will she not stay there? Or should I confine her altogether.

 

[yodercountrygirl]

ok I put into a small pen with run. So I felt the eggs and now they are cool. what do I do now. Do I put the eggs in the run part or leave them in the box area. Or do I let her go and put the eggs back in the nesting box that she was in to begin with. Sorry if this is confusing....
Picture coming in a little while.

I did put the eggs in the cage part.

 

[yodercountrygirl]

can some one help please/// newbie

 

[Lollipop]

Sorry Hon, didn`t mean to leave ya hanging, hadda go out. Hope you got things straightened out. Best way to handle a move is to do it at nigh so as to not stress the hen and she wakes up in her new environment. The new nest should be as private as possible. Looks like you have a good setup there. Hopefully you got her settled......Pop

 

[Chickenfortress]

If you have several nests put a gate in front of the one shes in. Left on their own the other birds will be pushing in to lay and may push her out completely. When that happens here the broody always seems to adopt another nest, which means she starts brooding more eggs and lets the first clutch cool. You can lose a lot of eggs this way. To remedy the matter I put a hinged gate on the separator wall between two nest boxes which means I can have a broody in either of two nests protected from intrusion. I keep water and a bit of food in there for her, and phyically bring her out to poo once a day. If you don't want to take one of your nest boxes out of action for three weeks, go with a pet carrier on the ground.
As far as moving a mother without hurting chicks, just reach carefully under her breast bone and lift slowly. Move the mother to the new spot first, with one chick to keep her from panicking. When you move the rest over, place them in front of her, not under. They will crawl under on their own and inadvertant chick squishing will be avoided.

 

[Chickenfortress]

As for that little run you have there....
You really don't want to have to reach through that little hole to clean out regular chicken poo. Wait till you are blessed with broody poo. Imagine your little broody walking into that tiny enclosure from the nest, picking a bit of crumbles, taking a drink, and then dumping more septic alien poo than can physically occupy the same space that your bird does even before you take the puffed feathers into account. I swear that all that remains of my birds sometimes is feather, skin and a beak when you see how much they left. What's more, it stinks. Not like regular stink. More like diaper pail left in the sun in a small enclosed room for a week stink. Like your septic tank backflowed into your basement while you were on vacation stink. And you want to reach through that little hole to clean it out?

 

[yodercountrygirl]

hey thanks for the advice... THe box has a lid on it so we can get into it that way... Well my 1st mistake was to move her during the day time...sorry Pops

And so she didn't like the move and therefore didn't set on the eggs all afternoon.

So now at this point I am confused about what I am doing

and night fall comes and we move her out of the pen into the first nest that she was in. So we will see what happens. We wern't really wanting to have chicks but I wanted to see if she would do it.
Again thanks!!