Broody advice

[mi5chicks]

Hi, I'm looking for opinions on how to handle my situation. I have a chicken who has been broody for about a week. I left her sitting on a few fake eggs and was planning on giving her fertile eggs today as I was out of town for a couple days and just got back. But I have a couple questions..

She is not staying in the same nesting box all the time. I think she gets out to do her business and if it's occupied when she gets back she just goes elsewhere. I've read it's iffy trying to separate so I had just decided to try leaving her in the box and keep an eye on it. Is that a good idea or no? I dont want to stress her out by locking her in a cage or make her abandon the eggs. But if I leave her in a nest she might abandon them too. But that leads me to my second question..

We got back last night and I went to check on them and there was a second broody in the box where the first was when I left. Now I assume I should break her because from what I've read having 2 broodies sitting at the same time can be risky. But is there a way to know which one would be better to leave sitting?

Also I have just one dog cage that I can use to separate the one with eggs or use as a broody breaker. If I need to do both I'll have to figure something out.

So I guess what I'm wondering is: do I separate the broody (in a dog cage within the coop)? If so how do you go about moving her so shes not likely to give up the nest? Should I just randomly choose which one to leave sitting or let them both sit on a few eggs?

I know this is long, I've thoroughly confused myself thinking about this haha!

 

[kattabelly]

But is there a way to know which one would be better to leave sitting?

If they're both first-time broodies then all you can do is make an educated guess based on your observations and what you know of your birds, or go by trial and error - if you try to graft one to a new nest in a separate area and she won't accept it, maybe the other one will.

Some broodies will let you take them off the nest, put them somewhere completely new and unfamiliar, and so long as they have a nest in the new place and eggs to sit on they'll be happy. Some will abandon a nest if you mess with it at all.

Is the first broody just going to any other nest if hers is occupied when she comes back, or is she choosing a nest with eggs in? If so, collecting eggs more regularly might help. If you can predict what time she'll get off the nest and plan to be around at that time every day, you might be able to keep her on the same nest that way. You'll probably still want to have some way of blocking off the nest when her eggs are due to hatch, if other hens are still trying to lay in that nest, since they could harm hatching chicks either accidentally or on purpose.

The fact that your first broody is going and sitting on another nest if she comes back from a break to find her nest occupied - rather than standing and screaming, or dragging the other hen out, or climbing back in anyway - makes me think she might be likely to accept a new nest in a better spot. That isn't guaranteed though. Trying to make the new nest as similar as you can to the old nest might help. If they prefer the darkest nest box in the most out-of-the-way corner then a wire dog crate with nothing covering the top or any of the sides might not be the best choice, for example.

People might be able to make other suggestions if you're able to post photos of your nest boxes and coop.

 

[mi5chicks]

Thank you so much! I believe she's choosing nests with eggs in them but I'm not positive. I do collect eggs usually a couple times per day as it's still been cold here and I don't like leaving them too long. I had recently put fake eggs in each nest to encourage use of all nests for laying but then removed them before I went out of town and only left a few in the nest she was using to try to keep her in the same one. I'll go take a picture shortly here to show what I'm working with!

 

[mi5chicks]

 

[mi5chicks]

In the nesting boxes broody number one is on the bottom right and the box above her is where one was sleeping last night but the white chicken thats there right now is not the one. The one that was in there is currently off the nest so she's either on her break or not fully broody.

Where the bucket is on the floor is where I'd put the cage for the broody nest..I would probably put a box in there to put the actual nest in so it's more private. I put the bucket in there to try to put the broody in so she was away from the others and on the floor but she wouldn't go in and I didn't want to force it so I just left it there. I put nesting material in it but they pulled it out.

Edit to add: broody one was in that top box when I left on Wednesday and seems to go between those 2 boxes.

 

[kattabelly]

If they aren't used to nesting in a bucket, that amount of change would probably put them off. Or if you left the bucket there, one day a hen who's always laid in those nest boxes before might decide the bucket is a perfect place to go broody

If you are going to try putting a dog cage in the coop, my approch would probably be to put something like a cardboard box on its side inside the cage, so it feels about as enclosed as the nest boxes they use now. If possible I'd remove the eggs from the nest she'd been sitting in and then try and move the whole nest from the nest box to the box you want her to use, disturbing it as little as possible. Depending on the nest and where you're moving her to, you might need to add more more nesting materials for her to rebuild it a bit. You could also add some dry-ish soil or a thick lump of not-too-wet upside down turf, since something like that can be easier for them to make a deep nest to comfortably sit in while covering the eggs. She might like that, or she might not accept it at all or only if you added plenty of straw on top since that's what she's used to.

I would put eggs in the nest before trying to move her to it, and make sure there are no eggs in any of the nest boxes at that time. She might get the idea straight away, or she might go backwards and forwards a bit and eventually decide that the new nest is the best option since that's the only one with eggs, or you might need to shut her in the cage with the new nest for a while and hope that convinces her to sit there.
I would usually try showing a hen the new nest that I wanted her to use and then seeing if she'll make her own choice to move there, before doing something like shutting her into a new nest with nowhere else to go, because I suspect that way she'll be more likely to keep going back to that nest and not try to nest elsewhere or quit being broody. That's just my personal preference though. All of this is just ideas for things that might work. Other people might make different suggestions that might or might not work for you.

 

[mi5chicks]

Thank you! Yeah I'm not surprised she didn't take to the bucket but I was hoping I'd add some soil if I could but we haven't seen dirt in months..

I'll try setting her up and see how it goes!