Broody Hen chicken

[nicholai630]

This whole broody hen thing is new to me so I would love some more info. My Buff Orpington has been broody so I thought why not let her sit on some eggs. Well, Its been 7 days and I just checked the eggs and lo and behold a chick was wiggling inside one egg out of five. I have her, a wyandotte, RIR and a barred rock- not sure who's egg this is. Dad is a RIR bantam. Yes a bantam hence my surprise that he was able to fertilize the egg without a stool
I don't have any pics sorry so hopefully my description will work. I want to separate broody hen and eggs from the rest of flock. Can I use chicken wire fencing to just separate her nesting box from everyone. I can also incorporate the nesting box next to her if she should have more room. Is that enough space for her? I imagine I will still need to scoot her outside until chick hatches, but do I still do so after chick is born. When do you then ket chick mingle with flock?

 

[Whittni]

You can fence her off from the others without a problem, just give her hen own feed bowl and waterer. Make sure she has enough space to walk around a peck and you should be fine. Remember, all eggs don't hatch so it might take a couple tries to hatch a chick or two for mom-hen. Good luck with your egg.

Mom hen and chick(s) can join the other chickens when the chick is about 3-4 months old or whenever it is about the size of the other chickens.

 

[Judy]

You can also let her raise the chicks in with the rest of the flock. This is what I always do. She will protect the chicks from any pushy hens if she is a good broody, and this way the chicks will already be a part of the flock when she decides not to mother them any longer in 4 or 5 weeks. if they are separate, you will need to keep the chicks separate until they are around the same size as the mature chickens.

 

[nicholai630]

Just in case anyone wanted to follow up on this. One egg was doing great and I should have separated the easy going broody hen with the egg, but did not in time. Found the egg smashed with baby chick deceased. There may have been an issue with two broody hens vieing for the eggs laying.
On a side note for people with issues with broody hens. I keep a cat kennel in the nesting box and just shut it so that they couldn't go in. Took about a few days but no more broody girls. It also helped to constantly remove any laid eggs.