Last spring one of my Black Giants, Bucky (dumb name I know, my granddaughter named her!) got broody and she was very serious about it. She laid a clutch of 6 eggs and wouldn't leave the nest most days at all! I got a small Tupperware bowl and would feed her and give her water, so she survived but that's not my question. Two of her eggs hatched, two died trying to get out of the shell (happened overnight and I wasn't around to help), and two were not fertile. The problem was this: She chose to nest on the "second floor" of the nesting boxes. The chicks couldn't get out of the nest and go with her and return. I tried to re-locate her to a nest on the floor and she wouldn't have it. I ended up taking the chicks away and raising them alone. If this happens again should I get an incubator and try that route instead? I had another hen that was broody too, but she would jump from box to box and wouldn't "sit" in the same nest on eggs. She was inexperienced.


