Best tips for a broody hen

[Firsttimehens1234]

I have a bc marans who has layed on her nest for 48 hours non stop. She is MEAN and has been mean for about a week now.
I believe she is broody
How do I take the best care of a broody hen? I’m not gonna remove her from her nest rn and I have read that some hens lay on their nest non stop for the first few days.
I also think I will let her be in the nesting box until day 17-18 so I don’t disturb her that much, I only have 3 other hens than her so they don’t fight over nesting boxes
She has not pooped in the nesting box so that’s all good.
I want her to hatch chicks but it’s her first time so what do I have to look out for?
She is about 1 year and 6 months old
Any tips would be appreciated

 

[DobieLover]

If you seriously want her to set, she should not set in the nest boxes that the other hens use.

Is your rooster the same age?

I would move her to a ground nest away from the nest boxes. Fights can and do break out with broody hens and eggs get broken. You could set her up in a large dog crate with a towel over it if it is all wire or use a ventilated plastic crate. Put thick dry bedding in it and some fake eggs and lock her in there. Remove her once or twice a day to take care of business and stay to watch when she heads back in and direct her to the correct nest site. The first couple times you remove her she will have to be placed back in the crate manually before you close the door.

Eventually she will hesitate heading straight to the old site and you can just guide her to her new nest. Shen you observe her returning to her own nest 3 times in a row with no correction, she is ready to receive her hatching eggs and you can leave the crate door open. All the eggs should all be marked to make sure no one deposits eggs in her nest when she leaves on broody breaks. Do not permit additional fertile eggs to be deposited in her nest. All eggs need to be set at the same time.

 

[Firsttimehens1234]

If you seriously want her to set, she should not set in the nest boxes that the other hens use.

Is your rooster the same age?

I would move her to a ground nest away from the nest boxes. Fights can and do break out with broody hens and eggs get broken. You could set her up in a large dog crate with a towel over it if it is all wire or use a ventilated plastic crate. Put thick dry bedding in it and some fake eggs and lock her in there. Remove her once or twice a day to take care of business and stay to watch when she heads back in and direct her to the correct nest site. The first couple times you remove her she will have to be placed back in the crate manually before you close the door.

Eventually she will hesitate heading straight to the old site and you can just guide her to her new nest. Shen you observe her returning to her own nest 3 times in a row with no correction, she is ready to receive her hatching eggs and you can leave the crate door open. All the eggs should all be marked to make sure no one deposits eggs in her nest when she leaves on broody breaks. Do not permit additional fertile eggs to be deposited in her nest. All eggs need to be set at the same time.

Hi, thank you for the answer
My rooster is the same age as my hen so 1 year and 6 months(they hatched in the same day)
The broody hen is the boss hen and she rules over all the hens and her and the rooster can be on the same level of bossiness some days.
Only two of my three hens use the nesting box and the box she is laying in isn’t their favorite
Since it’s her first time being broody I don’t know how serious she is about it and I’m afraid that moving her so quickly after she has settled in will cause her to break
I am planning on moving her but I kinda wanna see how serious she is about it first

My only concern is that she has not left the nest since she became broody on Tuesday, I gave her some food but she has not gone if the nest or pooped,should I just remove her from the nest for a little bit?

 

[Paz]

Hi, thank you for the answer
My rooster is the same age as my hen so 1 year and 6 months(they hatched in the same day)
The broody hen is the boss hen and she rules over all the hens and her and the rooster can be on the same level of bossiness some days.
Only two of my three hens use the nesting box and the box she is laying in isn’t their favorite
Since it’s her first time being broody I don’t know how serious she is about it and I’m afraid that moving her so quickly after she has settled in will cause her to break
I am planning on moving her but I kinda wanna see how serious she is about it first

My only concern is that she has not left the nest since she became broody on Tuesday, I gave her some food but she has not gone if the nest or pooped,should I just remove her from the nest for a little bit?

She most likely gets off the nest to take a crap when you don’t look. If you can just move her box to the ground or something I think it would be best, you can put some food and water close by and everything will be fine.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have a bc marans who has layed on her nest for 48 hours non stop. She is MEAN and has been mean for about a week now.
I believe she is broody

My test to see if a hen is broody enough to deserve hatching eggs is that she needs to stay on the nest for two consecutive nights instead of sleeping in her normal spot. I've had some hens show all the signs of being broody but fail the two consecutive nights test. If they are not going to take care of the eggs at night they don't deserve hatching eggs.

How do I take the best care of a broody hen? I’m not gonna remove her from her nest

I am planning on moving her but I kinda wanna see how serious she is about it first

I'm not sure what you plan. To me you have two basic options. If you let her hatch with the flock you should mark a couple of eggs that are under her and consider them sacrificial eggs. Leave them there while you collect all the eggs you want her to hatch so you can start them all at the same time. When you have all you want mark them (I use a black Sharpie) so you can clearly identify them and toss the old marked eggs and start these under her. Then every day after the others have laid remove any that don't belong. This avoids a staggered hatch.

If you plan to isolate her I'd move her and make sure she won't break from being moved while I was collecting the eggs to hatch. There are different techniques for that. Some people can fence off the broody hen's nest in the coop to keep her locked in and other hens out. Leave her locked in there until the eggs hatch with room for food and water and to go poop. You'll need to clean the poop out. Others make a pen either in the coop, in the run, or even in another building and leave her locked there until the chicks hatch. Or some version of Dobie's method.

I have read that some hens lay on their nest non stop for the first few days.

Before a hen starts laying eggs she builds up a fat reserve. That fat is mostly what she lives off of while broody. That way she can stay on the nest instead of having to be off looking for food and water. She will lose weight but it is fat put there for a purpose.

I've had a broody hen come off of her nest twice a day for over one hour each time. I've had a broody hen come off of the nest once a day for about 15 minutes. I've had several broody hens I never see off of the nest but I know they are coming off because they are not pooping in the nest. The way I look at that, hens have been hatching eggs for thousands of years without human help. I trust my broody hens to know more about being broody than I ever will.

I want her to hatch chicks but it’s her first time so what do I have to look out for?

I've never hesitated to give a first time broody eggs to hatch if I want her to hatch. I've had as much success with them as with "experienced" broody hens. I've had as much failures with experienced hens as I have with first tine broodies. That it is your first time may have more to do with it than it being her first time. I trust my broody hens and try to interfere as little as possible. I do check under them every day for eggs that don't belong.

No matter whether you isolate her or not, be aware that newly hatched chicks often like to climb up under Mama's wings. I killed a chick once by picking up a broody hen by crushing it. I still pick broody hens up if I need to but I'm pretty cautious doing it.

No matter which way you go there are so many different things that can happen it's hard to try to cover them all. It works that way when you deal with living animals. About all I can say is to observe and follow your judgment. And ask questions on here.

 

[Firsttimehens1234]

My test to see if a hen is broody enough to deserve hatching eggs is that she needs to stay on the nest for two consecutive nights instead of sleeping in her normal spot. I've had some hens show all the signs of being broody but fail the two consecutive nights test. If they are not going to take care of the eggs at night they don't deserve hatching eggs.



I'm not sure what you plan. To me you have two basic options. If you let her hatch with the flock you should mark a couple of eggs that are under her and consider them sacrificial eggs. Leave them there while you collect all the eggs you want her to hatch so you can start them all at the same time. When you have all you want mark them (I use a black Sharpie) so you can clearly identify them and toss the old marked eggs and start these under her. Then every day after the others have laid remove any that don't belong. This avoids a staggered hatch.

If you plan to isolate her I'd move her and make sure she won't break from being moved while I was collecting the eggs to hatch. There are different techniques for that. Some people can fence off the broody hen's nest in the coop to keep her locked in and other hens out. Leave her locked in there until the eggs hatch with room for food and water and to go poop. You'll need to clean the poop out. Others make a pen either in the coop, in the run, or even in another building and leave her locked there until the chicks hatch. Or some version of Dobie's method.


Before a hen starts laying eggs she builds up a fat reserve. That fat is mostly what she lives off of while broody. That way she can stay on the nest instead of having to be off looking for food and water. She will lose weight but it is fat put there for a purpose.

I've had a broody hen come off of her nest twice a day for over one hour each time. I've had a broody hen come off of the nest once a day for about 15 minutes. I've had several broody hens I never see off of the nest but I know they are coming off because they are not pooping in the nest. The way I look at that, hens have been hatching eggs for thousands of years without human help. I trust my broody hens to know more about being broody than I ever will.


I've never hesitated to give a first time broody eggs to hatch if I want her to hatch. I've had as much success with them as with "experienced" broody hens. I've had as much failures with experienced hens as I have with first tine broodies. That it is your first time may have more to do with it than it being her first time. I trust my broody hens and try to interfere as little as possible. I do check under them every day for eggs that don't belong.

No matter whether you isolate her or not, be aware that newly hatched chicks often like to climb up under Mama's wings. I killed a chick once by picking up a broody hen by crushing it. I still pick broody hens up if I need to but I'm pretty cautious doing it.

No matter which way you go there are so many different things that can happen it's hard to try to cover them all. It works that way when you deal with living animals. About all I can say is to observe and follow your judgment. And ask questions on here.

Thank you for the answer
My hen has now been laying on her nest day and night for 3 days now as far as I know and can see she hasn’t pooped yet, today I fed her some food and water so I’m expecting her to go down from her nest tomorrow hopefully, there is no poop in the box so that’s good

I know for a fact that none of the hens are laying in her nesting box as she is the boss and nobody dares to go near her right now(she is pretty mean and will peck everyone and everything she comes near)
She is also laying in her favorite box and the other hens prefer the box next to her

My plan as it is rn is to let her be with her flock ( I have a small flock of 4 hens (with her) and a rooster)
until day 16-17 and then move her at night into a broody pen away from the flock, I have heard other people have had success with that, since it is her first time I also don’t want her to get stressed out from the flock if the chicks hatch, I just want her to focus on the chicks and be with them and also the nesting boxes are on the wall so it won’t be safe for any chicks to be in there

my only problem is that I didn’t think she would ever go broody and actually gave up on the idea that any of my hens would go broody so I have two hens waiting to join my flock, they are right now living in another coop mabye 100 feet away from them.
I have a feeling that it would be a bad idea to put them in the flock now since it will cause a lot of stress to everyone, would you add new chickens to a flock with a broody hen?

 

[Ridgerunner]

would you add new chickens to a flock with a broody hen?

How old are they? Are they laying eggs yet? If they are young and not laying yet it would not bother me. If they are more mature and are laying eggs I'd have to think about it.

 

[Firsttimehens1234]

How old are they? Are they laying eggs yet? If they are young and not laying yet it would not bother me. If they are more mature and are laying eggs I'd have to think about it.

They are Young and not laying yet,my guess is that they are a little over 4 months old
This picture is the youngest of them, the other one is a little bigger

 

[Ridgerunner]

In that case I'd try integrating them.

 

[Firsttimehens1234]

In that case I'd try integrating them.

Okay,thank you for the answer