Broody Hen

[123RedBeard]

Maybe you could "chaperone" her once a day ... not only does she need to stretch her legs, and poop ... she will benefit from a dust bath too, so will the chicks when they hatch under a clean mama!

 

[Mimi13]

Maybe you could "chaperone" her once a day ... not only does she need to stretch her legs, and poop ... she will benefit from a dust bath too, so will the chicks when they hatch under a clean mama!

I just went through the broody sitting stage. Like you, I moved mine after her first few days of sitting (in one of the nest boxes). I put her in a wire dog crate in a nest I made for her out of a 5 gallon bucket placed in a Coke crate. ** a word of caution later.

She had food and water in the crate, but never got up to take care of business. I wound up letting her out once every day. I would have to remove her from the nest and then she would make a bee line for the run, grab a bite to eat, drop a load, sometimes take a quick dust bath and sometimes run out in the yard and peck around. She never stayed off the nest more than 30 minutes.

All has turned out well for my 8 month old broody. She has done a wonderful job. All 4 eggs hatched, but because of the way I had set her nest up, a bucket in the Coke crate, there was a ledge that one of the newly hatched chicks couldn’t get back up and into the nest and it died in the middle of the night. That was totally my fault and I quickly rearranged the nest to accommodate the chicks. The chicks are 2 weeks old and doing well, even in the cold weather. The broody keeps them warm.

 

[birdiefluff]

I just went through the broody sitting stage. Like you, I moved mine after her first few days of sitting (in one of the nest boxes). I put her in a wire dog crate in a nest I made for her out of a 5 gallon bucket placed in a Coke crate. ** a word of caution later.

She had food and water in the crate, but never got up to take care of business. I wound up letting her out once every day. I would have to remove her from the nest and then she would make a bee line for the run, grab a bite to eat, drop a load, sometimes take a quick dust bath and sometimes run out in the yard and peck around. She never stayed off the nest more than 30 minutes.

All has turned out well for my 8 month old broody. She has done a wonderful job. All 4 eggs hatched, but because of the way I had set her nest up, a bucket in the Coke crate, there was a ledge that one of the newly hatched chicks couldn’t get back up and into the nest and it died in the middle of the night. That was totally my fault and I quickly rearranged the nest to accommodate the chicks. The chicks are 2 weeks old and doing well, even in the cold weather. The broody keeps them warm.

The chicks I've had in the past didn't get out of the dog crate much at all. I'd have 1 peeping loud outside the crate and I'd run put it back in with Mother. The crate was kept up on our dryer away from our kitties. And the house door was like right there, so I always heard if 1 got out. Never had a chick die in the crate yet.

 

[Mimi13]

The chicks I've had in the past didn't get out of the dog crate much at all. I'd have 1 peeping loud outside the crate and I'd run put it back in with Mother. The crate was kept up on our dryer away from our kitties. And the house door was like right there, so I always heard if 1 got out. Never had a chick die in the crate yet.

I didn’t do a good job explaining it well, I know. These two pictures show what I meant. The little chick didn’t get out of the wire dog crate and die. It just fell over the edge of the Coca-Cola crate and couldn’t get back in.

This pic shows the red Coke crate and a piece of 2x4 I used to wedge the blue 5 gallon bucket in it. The chick fell out of the nest and since it was at night I had the little curtains partially pulled down to help maintain some warmth in there.

That next morning, after I saw what had happened, I removed the red crate. Now the bucket opening was flat on the ground so the chicks could come and go freely. And I removed the curtains.

 

[centrarchid]

I do like to have feed and water some distance from where nest is located. The feed can be an attractant for predators / pests. I would let her poop in the cattle feed. Just keep chicks out of cattle feeder so they do not eaten by the cattle.