Broody hen "flew" away from her nest lol!

[twresamarie]

I've asked this in a few other places as well.
One of my favorite hens went broody, we let her keep one. ..but her placement was not in the coop. I've been walking her to her nest with her egg in the am and back into the coop at night for lock down. We've been at this about 2weeks now. If I'm not there on time in the mornings she'll have an egg sitter and be waiting on me in her nest. ..lol
Today, she wants nothing to do with it, any of it. She was out playing in the yard, left the egg cold....won't stay in her nest with it, nothing! So I've lil Eggbert in my bra! I've candled him a few times today, thinking he was dead. ...due to what ever reasons. ...but nope! Air, veins and movement are good. ...
I think the egg is over 14days old but less then 18. I can see shades in the darkened areas. The darker shade moves, lighter shade hold the veins and what not. The lil tiny movements i feel in the egg as well. ...so ummmmm what to do. I guess i could put together an incubator today or tomorrow. ...i do have a place for him to grow in a box with heat lights as well. ....but what to do til then?
Has it been in my bra to long to go into an incubator? By the time it's done and ready will probably be 12 to 24hrs in my bra. ..should i just leave he there? What's this i heard about the last 72hrs luck down stuff. ..
I could wrap him in a towel, under the lamps and see how it goes. ...

 

[twresamarie]

On the 3rd try to get her into her nesting bush, she flew! Up, out and away instead of just walking away. ...i took that as a "all he'll no, I'm done" kinda action! She's one that had lived in the house this last spring, had slept with me and i would say we know each other pretty well lol. ...we'll yeah i know I'm talking about a chicken but she was almost am inside only chicken! So I'm sure she's done with the whole broody mana thing!

 

[rebrascora]

Are you saying that you were letting her sit on the egg in a nest of her choosing through the day and moving her and the egg into the coop each night? If so, I'm not surprised she has given up. The nest site is almost more important to a broody than the eggs as she is homed in to that nest site rather than the eggs themselves (if you remove the eggs she will usually still set in the nest). Moving her twice a day every day to a different nest will have really confused her.

If you feel that the nest a broody hen has chosen herself is not safe, you need to make a new nest for her and confine her to that nest area so that she cannot get back to the old nest site until she is reprogrammed to the new nest.

I have an old cupboard that I use which has enough room for food and water and holes drilled in the door for ventilation. Once a day, I let her out for a broody break and then supervise her return to the cupboard after 15mins or so. If she goes back to the wrong nest, I wait until she settles and then pick her up and move her back into the cupboard and shut the door. She soon settles down onto the eggs and after 2-3 days she has reprogrammed her homing instinct to the new nest in the cupboard. The advantage of shutting her in is that she gets peace and quiet without other hens trying to lay in her nest and I know that there is not going to be any nest swapping going on and the incubating eggs being accidentally abandoned when I'm not there. She remains part of the flock because she integrates with them each day during her broody break and the chicks are reared by her within the flock.

I've tried putting abandoned eggs in my bra and it's ok as a short term measure to keep them alive but from my experience not warm enough to continue to incubate them....too much insulation in that fatty tissue to convey enough body heat!
Raising a lone chick in a brooder is not an ideal situation either but I can understand you not wanting to give up on the chick if it is still alive and developing.

Good luck with it.

Barbara

 

[caw555]

Are you saying that you were letting her sit on the egg in a nest of her choosing through the day and moving her and the egg into the coop each night? If so, I'm not surprised she has given up. The nest site is almost more important to a broody than the eggs as she is homed in to that nest site rather than the eggs themselves (if you remove the eggs she will usually still set in the nest). Moving her twice a day every day to a different nest will have really confused her.

If you feel that the nest a broody hen has chosen herself is not safe, you need to make a new nest for her and confine her to that nest area so that she cannot get back to the old nest site until she is reprogrammed to the new nest.

I have an old cupboard that I use which has enough room for food and water and holes drilled in the door for ventilation. Once a day, I let her out for a broody break and then supervise her return to the cupboard after 15mins or so. If she goes back to the wrong nest, I wait until she settles and then pick her up and move her back into the cupboard and shut the door. She soon settles down onto the eggs and after 2-3 days she has reprogrammed her homing instinct to the new nest in the cupboard. The advantage of shutting her in is that she gets peace and quiet without other hens trying to lay in her nest and I know that there is not going to be any nest swapping going on and the incubating eggs being accidentally abandoned when I'm not there. She remains part of the flock because she integrates with them each day during her broody break and the chicks are reared by her within the flock.

I've tried putting abandoned eggs in my bra and it's ok as a short term measure to keep them alive but from my experience not warm enough to continue to incubate them....too much insulation in that fatty tissue to convey enough body heat! 
Raising a lone chick in a brooder is not an ideal situation either but I can understand you not wanting to give up on the chick if it is still alive and developing.

Good luck with it.

Barbara     

Agreed do you have another broody to put the egg under?

 

[twresamarie]

She was our 2nd to go broody. None have since. So no luck in swapping mamas. Yeah, we'd have to close her in at night with the flock because she wanted her nest in the front yard. ...but only laid one egg, which she sat on for weeks. We've been doing it for 2 weeks or more. The egg is still good, been in the boob-bator for 17hrs so far. I even feel asleep for a while. I'm trying to keep it up-rite, and having the air pocket up. It's got to be at least a day or two away from hatching. I swear i can hear lil chirping going on lol. ...
I'll post a pic an maybe you can tell me what you think.

 

[Weehopper]

Other than moving her into the coop and locked in for some time, I would not mess with her any more than that. Chickens have been hatching eggs for thousands of years. Leave her be to come off to eat and do her business when she will. If she doesn't want to come off for a few days, so be it. Just let her be. Even if she doesn't have a successful hatch for some reason, just remember there will be more eggs and broody hens down the line. The dinosaurs were around for millions of years.