Broody Hens vs Laying Hens

[thornwing]

I have about six broody hens right now in boxes in the coop along with unused boxes full of eggs for the laying hens. Still, the hens that want to lay a new egg come in, ignore the unoccupied boxes and find the ones with broody hens in them. Then the layers kick her off her clutch, lay their egg, leave, and the broody gets back in. The problem is I don't always catch this though I know it's happening, and more and more eggs are added to this broody hen's nest. This means eggs are being incubated at different times and the nest is filling up so much that some eggs are exposed to the open and moved around the box so eventually each egg has been cooled down (embryo killed). How do I get these laying hens to leave the broody hens alone and lay in one of the provided boxes? I cannot seperate chickens or put them in a different place, they must ALL remain in the coop. Also, I notice that some broody hens nests after about the second week just get totally messed up. The eggs get buried in the hay, the hay gets sticky and dirty, the eggs stick to the dirt and are all over the box and most of the time no chicks hatch. How do I prevent all of this?

 

[chicmom]

Separating them is ideal, but since you can't do that, mark the eggs that you want to stay under the broody, and collect the newly layed eggs daily. There won't be much you can do about the laying hens getting in there unless you could block off that area during the day and put a few other nesting boxes somewhere else.

 

[FireTigeris]

... well its too late now... but next time mark the eggs with a crayon, the ones that you are letting the broody's keep, remove any unmarked eggs twice a day...

 

[4-H chicken mom]

I would put a check mark on the eggs you want incubated. That way any new egg that comes along can be removed. Is there a way you can partion off half the coop, broody's on one side, laying hens on the other? Good luck.

 

[thornwing]

I tried that once, but it seems that the eggs always fall out from the hen and the broody hens are getting sloppier....I marked them with a pencil and wrote "BROODY" but it washed away because the hens are so clusmy and lazy, they break some eggs the nesting gets messed up gross.....maybe I just need to fill in what the hen is missing and not doing

 

[FireTigeris]

move her to a better box?

 

[sourland]

As long as you allow laying hens access to broody hens, you wil be unsuccessful at raising chicks. In the worst case scenario laying hens may even kill any chicks that manage to hatch. Hens fighting over nesting areas will crack and break eggs. Bacteria multiply in the mess and any developing eggs will rot. For some unknown "chicken reason", the unused boxes are less desirable to the non broody hens. You will have to modify your set up or move the broody hens if you want to be successful at raising chicks.

 

[thornwing]

Also, I have hens that are sitting perfectly in their box, broody about 2 weeks in, and another hen comes along and all of a sudden goes broody for that hen's eggs, kicks her off and begins to incubate the other hens eggs...

 

[tammyd57]

Is there enough space in your coop to put in a few large dog crates? Large enough to hold the hen, nest, food & water. That would keep the non-broodies out and make it a lot easier on the broodies to actually hatch some chicks. I've had to do that before but at that time I had a huge coop.

 

[Surehatch]

Try marking with a pencil