Broody Buckeye with chicks and egg

[jenjscott]

I have a Buckeye that went broody but only had four eggs. I moved her to a broody pen, but as she had already been setting for a while I didn't want to add any eggs. Two days ago she hatched 2 chicks. Today she has the chicks off the nest, but is taking an unhatched egg with her. It's a small cage, 2 x 3, but she moves that egg around with her and the chicks, over to get water and food, back to the nest corner, etc. She's as bad as I am about not giving up on eggs in the bator. I still have hope because she was in a coop with other chickens, so the egg could have been laid after she started setting on the others. Anyone else ever seen a hen take an egg with her?

 

[L0rraine]

The closest I've seen is a broody getting off the nest and trying to round up an egg from an adjacent nest (obviously that didn't go well).

 

[UrbanFarmChix]

I have a broody Buckeye. She's my first. I didn't expect the buckeyes to get broody. Do they make good moms. I've had great luck with silkies and bantam cochins and so so luck with Ameraucanas as moms. I'm trying to decide whether to give her eggs to hatch.

 

[jenjscott]

So far I have two that I let keep eggs. One has hatched and appears to be an excellent mom. She's the one that was toting the egg around. It never hatched, and finally after a few days, she gave it up. The other I just moved the other day in broad daylight to a cage and put her eggs in a shallow pan and she moved right in and took back to setting. She did a lot of growling, but never bit or tried to attack or bite me in the move.