Broody Hen Thread!

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After having no luck with my bator i was So Happy to find 3 little chicks under my broodys. Ive got more coming out as well
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oh they are silkies
 
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HI Reggen!


I have a 2x4 ferret cage hanging on the wall with nails above the floor of my coop just at arm/eye level to save room. About a week before chicks hatch from eggs, I move hen(s) into there to hatch out. It works great and keeps them totally safe too. Soon as my chicks start hatching and are fluffy, I always pull them as my hens will fight over babys and kill them by accident. So I built a double walled 3x5 chick coop away from my main coop and raise all babies in there till they are 2-3 months of age. Works Great and its totally warm in there, even for new borns in the dead cold of winter!

Hope this helps!
 
My Cochin is being a pig and hoarding all the eggs in each nest box. Is it ok if some eggs are two days apart from each other. B/c I have always had chicks in handy when one started to sit but now I don't.
 
Keggen said:
For those of you who put a kennel in your coop for the hen and her chicks, what size would you recommend? I don't have a ton of space but want to make sure I get one big enough for them. Dimensions would be helpful! :)
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Keggen -

I just tried to measure mine but the set up isn't ideal for opening the segregated area without the chicks escaping, so I can only estimate that it's about 32" inches long and roughly 18" deep. It's for a 50-pound dog and more than enough room for Chickadee and her peeps, but she's only a bantam so she has that going for her. I did let her have the run of the enclosure, which is 84" long and about 24" deep, but she often takes her babies back into the open kennel anyway. I have another bantam who is hinting at sitting on a clutch in the coop, so I might move her into the kennel; even so, there would be plenty of room for Chickadee in the rest of the area, which is only slightly larger than the crate. I used a small rabbit-size water bottle and, when she was only in the crate, a screw-on small food dish on the door of the crate, which eliminated the issue of cramped quarters spills. Mama and babies figured it out immediately. Now my only question is when to let her out into the coop (which has open access to outside...gulp) with her babes...
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Here are some photos so you can see what I mean by the size (again, she's a bantam so judge by that):

Chickadee with her babies (one at the water, two at the food dish - hard to see with the mesh screen. Sorry.)


The whole segregation space with the crate:


A lot of the other hens have been making nests in front of her screen (you can see a hollow in the photo above), so socialization seems to be happening, which is why I went with the crate/enclosure idea rather than a separate coop for the chicks. Good luck!
 

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