Broody help!

[Caroline1601]

I have a broody who happens to be the top chicken in the pecking order. I have a wire bottom caged and planned to spit her out today so that the others can get into the nest box and lay. Do I need to keep her close to the flock? If so am I able to put her back into the roosting box at night and just separate her in the day? The reason I ask is that I have cats who want to eat my chicken! I don't want to stress her out as she won't be able to get away from them if I need to keep her close to the flock. Alternatively I could put her in a cage and put her out of sight the cats but will also be out of sight of the flock

 

[gsim]

I wouldn't separate her from the flock. I have had chickens for over 5 yrs and I have seen numerous occasions where two will be in the same nest (12" X 12" square). The first one will scoot over and the other will settle in and lay her egg. I once saw two like that and a 3rd climb up on their backs and lay her egg on top of them! Point is, they all got along well and cooperated with one another. At that time I had 12 nests in an 8 x 16 coop. I have since cut that down to 6, and I only have a flock of 10 now. I have one Black Aussie who is super broody, but she merely stakes out one of 3 nests on the east half of the coop and mostly stays in one of them all day long with only short breaks. If she sees an egg she settles onto it and stays there, not even coming out for treats. She will sit on two and bypass a nest with one eggs, so I suppose she is just a natural born mommy.

If yours is territorial, you should look into building a 2nd nest, and try to make it the same height as the existing one.

 

[Caroline1601]

My broody has just got back to normal.... She's one stubborn madam. She's just had a molt n is now looking fit n healthy again. She did the submissive crouch today for the first time in months so I hope she's ready to start laying again