Broody hen in January

[HannahinOly]

I have a broody hen right now, and she seems pretty determined

my eggs are NOT fertilized so my hen is going to hatch nada. My question is, if i sneak some day old chicks under her (found some from the breeder i got my girls from), what would i need to do to get her a good set up? I dont want to bring her inside, but I am thinking about building a smaller coop on the ground level with a heatlamp inside. My current coop is 4 feet off the ground and I'm not sure thats ideal.

I hand raised my 5 little hens I have now and am looking forward to someone else to do the work!

Looking for advice, thank in advance!

 

[PrairieChickens]

I've yet to try sticking day-old chicks under a broody, but from what I understand, it's fairly simple. Folks just have the hen sit on fake eggs until they can get the chicks, then trade out the eggs for the babies at night while the hen is sleeping. As long as your temps don't get ridiculously cold, she can handle being outside with the babies. The chicks will pop out to forage and eat, then squeeze under her again if they get cold. Our hens went broody in the late fall, and they did a super job keeping the chicks warm into the winter temps.

 

[HannahinOly]

I would say our low temps right now are 30 degrees at the absolute lowest.

Are chicks able to get up and down such a high ramp? Would it be more safe to have a smaller more private ground level coop for awhile?