Broody egg dilemma

[bakerjw]

In my main flock I have 3 different groups of chickens. There are the 8 girls which are the older red sex link pullets. Then one who is a cross between a silver sebright and white rock and her clutch mates which are 4 white rock pullets. The 8 girls are at the top of the pecking order. At the bottom are the 4 WR pullets. The SS/WR cross is in the middle and has never been bullied around. She holds her own and doesn't care what the others are doing. We call the SS/WR cross Black Betty and she has a great personality. She has also gone broody on us. Now whenever she does come out of the coop some of the girls (red sex link hens) will attack her and devil her like crazy. I want to give her some eggs to brood over but I am concerned that she may have been knocked way down on the pecking order and any chicks might be put at risk when they hatch.

I am going to build her a protected nesting box either inside or just under the outside of the coop.

Any thoughts?

 

[CMV]

Broodies do get knocked down on the pecking order. My chronic broody was head honcho until she started the broody thing. She became lowest in her group. She remains dominant over any younger birds, and her group has since been culled, so she has no competitors now.

I think building her her own space is a great idea. I am doing the same for my broodies because my younger broody is getting bullied whenever she leaves the house, and has even been beaten off her nest by her superiors. Makes it hard to hatch eggs when my broody keeps shuffling from nest to nest whenever she gets booted out of a nesting box.

Good luck with yours. We'd love to see pics of what you work out.