Broody Hen hatches at least one egg on day 18

[Compost King]

When the hen was broody if I tried touch her when she was on the eggs she would get off the eggs and run away. I stopped checking on the eggs unless she got off them to get water or feed. She always got off them when threw out scratch grains and thats when I would candle her eggs and remove the infertile ones.

Here are some pictures of the Broody mama after the move to their own tiny coop. I keep them in the tiny coop I built in the bin that Compost in. Plenty of bugs and seeds etc for them to learn to free range on. The Mama hen hasn't figured out how to teach them to use the ramp. She keeps hopping in the coop to bring them in and they can't follow her. I watched her hop in 10 times and call them only to hop back out and try again. So every night until they learn to use the ramp I have to go into the Compost bin and catch them all with mama bird frantically attacking my hands. Maybe she will learn to tolerate humans with all this interaction.
The Bin is the netting to a trampoline a friend had and gave to me in case I had a use for it. I use it to contain my large compost piles and when I need an emergency coop/Run I put it to use. It works great for Broody mamas but for large fowl it only holds 3 birds in the tiny coop. I have used it for meat birds I bred but most birds can fly out since the the walls are just 6 feet tall and I usually have about 3 feet of compost in it.

 

[WVduckchick]

I bet momma hops up close to the door, and the chicks stand under her?
I try to start them at the bottom, and push their little bottoms up the ramp. Then try to get her at the top of the ramp, calling them up. Once she gets on board (haha) with that plan, they learn within a couple days afterward.