Are you going to move a broody hen?

[gimmie birdies]

People ask "should I move a broody hen?" If they don't like where the hen has chosen to set. Hens get very picky about where they lay/sit and if you do move the hen, she may not like where she gets moved to and either try and get back to her old nest, and may even abandon the eggs and decide not to sit at all. I like to leave them where she is and then mark the eggs I want her to sit on and if another hen lays and extra egg, I remove it. (Bantam should have 6 bantam eggs or 4 larger eggs or less, a regular hen I don't like to give her more than a dozen of her own eggs.) Now some people think it is cute to let a hen sit on 40 eggs but they will not all hatch and you end up with waste. Another way I have controlled my broody is I might put a hinged door over the box she is broody in and let her out once a day 15 min. or so then close her up with her eggs. This way the other hens won't kick her off the nest, and she will not get confused which lay box she was on.

 

[sylviethecochin]

I move mine to safer spots because they brood in unwise places, to wit:
The hay-baler, usually right before second crop cutting,
The calves' creep feeder,
Fifteen feet above a sheer drop (that was an operation),
The hay loft, right before hay-stacking season,
And the boneheaded wall of shame choice of under a tractor tire (still attached to functional tractor.)

I carefully take the hen and put her and her nest in a box, and try do this as early as possible, moving the box itself as late as possible. That gives her time to adjust to the box--that's her nesting site, not whatever specific location she's chosen. I check often to make sure she's not gotten confused and started nesting outside of the box.

When the nest absolutely has to be moved, I close the box flaps, leaving enough room for air flow and some light, move that box to a safe spot, and put a feeder and waterer in there. It's a larger box, so she can get off of the nest and do hen things (broody poo!), but she's confined. I leave the box closed for at least two days, sometimes more with my less experienced girls. It's been successful, thus far--and far better than leaving the nest in the hay-baler.

Also, I note that my bantam OEGBs generally choose to cover between eight and ten eggs with good results. I find it helps if you put the nest in a smaller rubber feed pan so that the edges of the nest are shored up, though I've only begun doing that recently.

Clever idea on the flap to keep the other hens out.