broody hen question

[ninny]

I finally had one of my girls go broody!! Can i move her or leave her where she is?

 

[Tugger1]

I left my broody hens. Funny thing was is that another hen would squeeze her butt in the box and lay and egg as well, the broody hen sat on all of them. Finally I marked the ones she had been sitting on for a while then I could still take out the "new" eggs

 

[ninny]

My worry is that the chicks will fall out of the box. My nest boxes are mounted about four feet of the floor. Plus the food and water is father then i think she will go.

 

[Tugger1]

My boxes are about 3 feet off. She will get off and eat and drink then go back to sit. Once babies were hatched I moved them all to the floor of the coop with food and water with a box separating them from the others. Mine were fine and the other hens never bothered them

 

[deborah]

We have a MaMa hen who had gone broody 3 years running. The first year we left her in the nest. NOT a good move. Problems with other hens and hatched chicks jumping out before all the eggs hatched. We lost some of the chicks in the hatch. The 2nd year, we built a brood box and the hatch went much better. She's in the brood box again and we are looking forward to the hatch in 2 days.

 

[PortageGirl]

Ha! Chicks can 'poof' down from quite a distance! The jump and flap (though the flapping isn't helpful, just instinctive) and since they're so light and the poofyness of their chicky fuzz seems to disperse the air enough that they just land without trouble!

I wouldn't worry about a few feet... maybe if you're worried enough, set a hay bale below it just in case. I saw some drop off a stack of hay bales one time, we thought we'd get them down once they hatched since we didn't want to disturb the broody's nest before that, but then she hatched when we weren't paying attention (of course we should have KNOWN but... ) so a few jumped before someone could get to them! They just came down like little parachutists!!! NOTE!!! I DO NOT!!! recommend anything that high, (probably 10 or 12 feet!!) and now a nest over 10 feet up would be moved sooner, but it happened and all survived. One of the guys got about half down before they all took the 'plunge', but his climbing up sort of chased a few more to jump! It was horrifying at the time, but in the end, kinda funny.

 

[Mrs. K]

Mine did not have any problem getting down either, and mamma went and built a new nest on the floor, but what amazed me, was weeks before they were feathered out, she got them to the TOP of the nesting box. That way she was roosted up high, and the chicks could still crawl under her for a warm up. I could never catch her getting them up there, but I would go in and there they would be!mk

 

[ninny]

Well i talked to DH and decided not to move her. My rooster finally decided to move to the other coop so she has a whole coop to herself. I'm keeping it locked and put food and water in it. Im going to put another nestbox on the ground in case she wants to move. Guess the old coop has a new puropse now. Need more broody hens.