Came home yesterday afternoon to find Ms. Broody in the wrong nest. Not sure if she just got "lost" coming back from a break (she was one nest box over from her eggs) or if someone was in her nest when she came back (no extra eggs so if they were there they didn't stay to lay) or if something else happened, but she was in the wrong place. I haven't seen any of the other hens even THINK about bothering her since she went broody because she puts up such a good bluff - but have seen one opportunist hop in while she was on a break and leave their egg with the clutch. I don't know how long she had been in the wrong place, eggs were definitely cool to the touch. I picked her up and moved her to the right box where she promptly settled right back in, but not so sure about the outlook for the hatch at this point. I am taking the approach of just letting her ride it out and see what happens.
I have had hens mix up boxes on numerous occasions and have had them hatch out without problem. It is one of the biggest risks you take in hatching within the flock but I still prefer to leave the hens brood as naturally as possible so I accept the risk. Our latest hatch was with our most faithful broody, a silkie mix named Gracie... she got pushed off of her eggs numerous times and we found them cool once in the late afternoon but when hatch time came she hatched out 6/6. The only difference I found with her hatch this time is that usually she is a day 20 hatcher, but this batch was spread out from late day 20 till early day 22, so the eggs cooling at some point must have at least slowed things down a bit.
Moving the hen to a more private area is often a good plan, but just isn't always an option. I had times this summer that we had 8 or 9 hens in some stage of brooding at one time, there just aren't enough private corners available when that happens! If you are able to be home daily at a particular time the other option is to create a small barrier to block other hens out of the broody nest, but by doing so you also are blocking her in so you have to be able to open the nest up at a regular time each day for her to get out and do her thing. I have done this in the past by making a small frame out of lightweight scrap lumber and stapling chicken wire over it. I then put a screw part way in on the top corners of the nest box and hang the frame on them so it creates a fence. A small nail partially pounded in and then bent over can make a simple latch also.
If I am blocking in a hen I make sure there is a small dish of healthy treat or chick crumbles and a water source. Gracie and a few of the other hens do very well with a hamster waterer so we make sure they always have one available when brooding.
I left my Silkie in the coop while she brooded two eggs there was a lot of musical nest boxes being played. I had piles of Silkies rotating through the nest, sometimes three at a time. Sometimes she was in the wrong nest, sometimes the eggs seemed as if they were neglected and cold. Of the two, one hatched perfectly healthy. The other pipped and died in the shell from some kind of infection and never absorbed the yolk. The shells of the eggs were not the best quality, so who knows why this chick died, but it wasn't from getting chilled during games of Silkie musical nest box. You may be just fine.
Our silkie mix, Gracie, is most vulnerable to this also (see above).... I adore her and think the Silkies are a wonderful breed, but they certainly take their share of being pushed around in a coop.
Hello everyone, hope you don't mind me posting here!
I'm fairly new to the world of chickens, I have 25 chooks in total (1 rooster). I have been thinking that I'd love to have a go at hatching some chicks with a broody hen in late spring/summer (I'm in Australia, so its spring now). I wasn't going to do it for a while yet, but today one of my dad's 4 hens became broody, and he suggested that It would be much easier for a broody hen to raise chicks in his setup with his small flock, compared to me having to set up a new pen for a broody hen. So I'm thinking I'll give it a go now with my dad's hen with some eggs from my birds.
I've read as much as I can about doing it, and i'm feeling fairly confident about it all, but is there anything really important that a total newbie should know?
I do have one question. I'm planning to let her brood the eggs in the nest she's chosen, but when the chicks hatch I'll have to move them to a more secure pen I have because crows are a massive problem here, and I think crows would probably steal the chicks... would moving her at this stage be okay?
Also, at what stages is it best to candle the eggs?
Thanks in advance for any advice
If you go back through about 2 months worth of posts on here and on the 'Old fashioned broody hen hatch a long' thread you will gain a wealth of information and viewpoints on how to handle many different situations. In my replies to the above 2 posts you can see just one of the issues we face when hatching within the flock.
If you think you want to move a broody it is usually best done before you give her the eggs you want her to hatch, I have had best luck moving hens in the late evening or after dark, make sure the new area is ready for her and move a bit of her chosen nest material with her so it smells familiar in her new nest. Expect that she will not be happy about moving but if you keep her quiet and maybe even in the dark or very shadowed light for a day or two with fake eggs in the nest she will probably settle back down. I have some hens who are absolute sweet hearts about moving
(having experienced it before makes it easier for them I think, at least my hens seem to do better after multiple broods) but I do have a couple of hens who just won't be moved no matter how many times we try and how inviting we try to make the new nest area...
Brooding hens can do fine with little on no intervention or 'help' from us silly humans, but if a hen is marginal in her health at all you can supplement her by offering good quality protein treats and change her over to a chick starter and provide her a dish in her nest or broody area to eat at her leisure.
.... before you give a hen eggs you should give her a once over to make sure she doesn't have mites or lice and you should check for those a couple of times during the brood, especially if you notice her color or condition failing. Broody hens can be very susceptible to parasites since they spend so little time dust bathing compared to normal.
.... my preference is to allow the hen a couple of days privacy with her new chicks before letting her back in with the flock, separation time preferences are a personal decision and should be based on the broody's ability to protect the chicks, how well they stay close to her and the dynamics of the flock in general. Some flocks seem very chick friendly while others have a few members who are aggressive to chicks. Observation of early introductions are needed to give you a guideline on what will work with your birds.
Candling is a personal choice. I only bother about day 10 so I can pull clear eggs, otherwise I let them go. Some folks like to candle more often but again, it is a personal choice.
If the hen is in an area accessible to other birds you must mark the eggs you give her to hatch. Simplest way is to just draw a line the whole way around the center of the egg so it will be visible no matter how it is positioned in the nest. Check daily for 'imposter' eggs from other hens and remove them. You don't want imposter eggs added during the brood because they will be behind the other eggs in development and result in a staggered hatch which is not good for broody or chicks.
I have a bantam hen that went broody a couple of days ago. She had a small clutch of 4 eggs (3 hers and 1 not). Only problem is that I have 14 hens that will only lay in two of the 5 nesting boxes. My bantam picked the most popular one to sit on her eggs. Needless to say the other 13 hens are regular size. So if my bantam doesn't move when they are ready to lay....they just sit on her. So today I moved her over to a nesting box that none of them use. When I left she was sitting on her eggs and looked content. I come back later this evening and the other hens went over there and busted one of her eggs and then laid their eggs in that nesting box. 
The bantam gave up on that clutch and went back over to the popular nesting box and was sitting on one of the White Leghorns eggs.
